 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
“SABONET must promote the conservation and sustainable use of the southern
African flora through networking between, and capacity building within botanical
gardens. Action plans should be put in place for integrated indigenous threatened
plant programmes.”—Willis & Turner
(2001), SABONET Botanical Gardens Action Plan.
The Global Strategy
for Plant Conservation has prompted botanical gardens worldwide to reconsider
the value, conservation role and significance of living collections (Bramwell
et al. 2002). Southern Africa with its very dynamic botanical garden
network was no exception and once again SABONET was proactive in its dealings.
During March 2001, 26 representatives of botanical gardens from eight southern
African countries came together to draw up an Action
Plan for Southern African Botanical Gardens (Willis & Turner
2001). This action plan formed the basis for the activities of the Southern
African Botanical Garden Network (SABGN) within SABONET. The vision of the
newly formed network was that each garden would have an indigenous Threatened
Plants Programme in place by 2004. Two years down the line much progress
has been made.
It is estimated that almost one tenth of southern Africa’s
flora is at some risk of extinction (Golding 2002). This prompted SABONET
to implement Threatened Plants Programmes (TPPs) in its 22 participating
botanical gardens to enable them, albeit in a small way, to contribute to
the conservation of threatened plants. Gardens of Botswana (1), Lesotho
(1), Malawi (3), Mozambique (3), Namibia (1), South Africa (9), Zambia (1),
and Zimbabwe (3) are actively taking part in the SABONET Project’s TPPs.
Two SABONET countries do not have functional gardens, but Angola has been
actively involved in revival after the war and Swaziland is developing their
first garden.
Gardens were requested to formulate programme proposals
for the cultivation of flagship species that are threatened in their countries
and to submit them to a SABONET committee for evaluation. A flagship species
was defined as a threatened plant with horticultural potential and/or value
to rural livelihoods. 17 proposals have been reviewed and approved, and
are being implemented (Carolus 2002; Hurter 2002; Tarr 2002; Mahlelebe 2002).
Each of these gardens was given US$ 3,000.00 as seed money to initiate their
programmes. Five proposals still need to be reviewed and we are expecting
the final versions before the deadline of 30 June 2003.
The approved TPPs aim at mass cultivation of threatened
species for local markets and reintroduction into areas where they have
gone extinct. Most of the species that form part of the programme are threatened
by over-harvesting of wild populations, because of the international horticultural
and indigenous medicinal plant trade. Such species are also further endangered
by the transformation of habitat by agricultural monocultures and urban
expansion. In some of the participating gardens the programme is well established
and it looks like SABONET is supporting successful initiatives to deliver
tangible outputs.
The participating gardens are cultivating 35 threatened
plants indigenous to southern Africa. 23 were chosen for their horticultural
potential and the remaining 12 for their importance to sustainable rural
livelihoods. In the programme, the Apocynaceae is the best-represented family,
followed by the Zamiaceae, Ericaceae, and Fabaceae. Encephalartos,
Orbea, and Erica are the best-represented genera. Most
gardens opted for the cultivation of species with horticultural potential,
such as succulents (nine species) and plants with spectacular flowers (ten
species). The plants that were chosen for sustainable utilisation programmes
are mostly used for medicine, food, timber, and handcrafts.
These programmes were strengthened by a Plant Conservation
Workshop that was held back-to-back with the African Botanic Gardens Congress.
The workshop culminated in Guidelines for ex situ conservation
collection management and case studies from southern African botanical
gardens, which should enable gardens across the region to learn from one
another. In addition to this, SABONET has contracted an expert to produce
a manual on the propagation
and cultivation of southern Africa’s threatened species
Appropriate partnerships (at local, national, and international
levels) need to be developed with the economic sector, conservation agencies,
and other gardens in 2003 to ensure the long-term sustainability of these
programmes. The monitoring and evaluation of TTPs and their role in conservation
must become a regular function in each botanical garden in southern Africa.
By achieving this, SABONET hopes to establish a worthy programme for ex
situ plant conservation.
