| Abstract Detail
Address of the BSA President-Elect Schneider, Edward [1]. The Power of Plants: Building Collaborations among Educational Institutions, Botanical Gardens, and Communities. The botanical world faces many problems: extinction; loss of biodiversity; commercial exploitation; accelerated urbanization; invasiveness; conservation and restoration issues; and continually diminished budgets for mitigations or for enhanced understanding of such problems. It is difficult if not impossible for any one individual or organization to confront these problems effectively on a sustained basis. Bringing together stakeholders, molding resources, and expanding minds to embrace new ideas is essential to help resolve such issues. The formal study of plants, historically vested with educational institutions where learning of the botanical world has been curriculum and research-driven, would benefit from wider public exposure and involvement. Botanical Gardens, often identified by their signature collections of living plants, typically landscaped in aesthetic displays, have asserted their community service role and have placed informal botanical/horticultural science and education prominently in their mission. Because Botanical Gardens collective conserve and display over 1/3 of the world's plant biodiversity and experience over 50 million visitors per year, a natural partnership between educational institutions, botanical gardens, possibly other plant related organizations, and the communities each serves, seems to offer increased opportunities for the botanical world.
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1 - Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 1212 Mission Canyon Rd, Santa Barbara, California, 93105-2126, USA
Keywords:
botanical garden
botany
Communities
Plants.
Presentation Type: Special Presentation
Session: TBA
Location: Salon H - Austin Grand Ballroom/Hilton
Date: Wednesday, August 17th, 2005
Time: 8:15 PM
Abstract ID:318 |
