The Biodiversity Convention and Kew
Kew Conservation Staff
In the recently revised Corporate
Strategic Plan (CSP), for the period 1996-2001, Kew's
Conservation Programme has been reorganized to reflect relevant
articles of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Coordination of staff towards the achievement of the objectives
and performance measures set out in the new CSP is being realized
through a Conservation Strategy Management Group (CSMG), which
replaces the former Conservation Coordinating Committee.
The CSMG comprises Kew's Director (Prof. Sir Iain Prance), the
Keeper of the Herbarium (Prof. Simon Owens), and the Curator of
the Living Collections Department (Nigel Taylor) who meet with
the leaders of eight cross-departmental Working Groups on a
regular basis to review progress and agree future direction. The
new CSP has conservation activities organized under five
subprogrammes, some of which are broken down into various named
and numbered objectives.
The Working Group leaders are currently as follows: Noel McGough
(conservation policy, national & international collaboration,
international conventions), Mike Sinnott (threatened taxa in the
Living Collections, conservation databases /bibliographies), Dr
Mike Fay (conservation genetics), Roger Smith (seed
conservation), Margaret Ramsay (micropropagation &
cryopreservation of plants & fungi), Andrew Jackson (UK
Biodiversity Action Plan and local in situ conservation), Mike
Maunder (in situ conservation overseas, capacity building) and Dr
David DuPuy (biodiversity mapping & monitoring).
Increased emphasis is being given to Kew's role in the
interpretation and operation of the CBD, led by Kerry ten Kate;
to auditing Kew's Living Collections to identify taxa of
conservation importance, which is being actioned by Matt Ford
(formerly of the Micropropagation Unit); to conservation genetics
(based in the Molecular Systematics Section of the Jodrell
Laboratory); and especially towards the conservation of native UK
species. Margaret Ramsay has replaced Mike Fay as manager of
LCD's Micropropagation Unit.
Nigel Taylor, Chair CSMG
A plate of Hibiscus
fragilis by Mark
Fothergill from this November's Curtis's Botanical Magazine which
is devoted to the Mascarene Islands. Only two trees of H.
fragilis survive in the wild on Rodrigues
and Kew is screening cultivated stocks to identify material for
reintroduction.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has now been ratified by 159 countries. Its objectives are the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources. These challenge governments worldwide. For institutions such as Kew, the CBD reflects the concerns and aspirations of our partners in the developing world. The new Biodiversity Conventions Officer post will be a catalyst for the institution's response to this challenge.
Flore des Mascareignes
Harvesting seeds of the
Round Island bottle palm Hyophorbe
lagenicaulis - only
five mature trees survive in the wild.
Some of the CBD's challenges of conservation, data repatriation
and technology transfer will be met in a new contract, worth ECU
165,000, awarded by the EC's European Development Fund to
complete Flore des Mascareignes by 1999. The Flore is a joint
project between Kew, the Sugar Industry Research Institute
Mauritius and ORSTOM, Paris. The contract will provide support
for the Flore's French editor, a Mauritian assistant (to work at
Kew and Paris for two years) and two Mascarenes students (to
attend Kew's Herbarium and Conservation Techniques courses).
Photographs of type specimens of Mauritian plants, held at Kew,
will be sent to the Mauritius Herbarium and the completed Flore
will be distributed within the islands. The Mascarenes rich
endemic flora is highly threatened and the contract also funds
the propagation and repatriation of selected endangered species,
including Ramosmania heterophylla and Hibiscus fragilis.
Contact: Dr Keith Ferguson (0181-332 5248)
The new European Development Fund contract will parallel and
complement the GEF-funded Biodiversity Restoration Project being
implemented by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation in collaboration
with the Government of Mauritius, Kew, Fauna and Flora
International and the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. Work
has started on two nurseries and field programmes have resulted
in exciting finds. A new and large population of the critically
endangered endemic palm Acanthophoenix rubra has been located on
Rodrigues and survey work is locating founder individuals for the
forthcoming restoration programme. On Cascade St Louis, Shelagh
Kell (a Kew-sponsored MSc student at the University of
Birmingham) has undertaken an analysis of vegetation to establish
targets for habitat restoration - work funded by the Friends of
Kew. Finally, recent planting on Round Island has resulted in a
crop of ebony seedlings (Diospyros eggretarum), the first on the
island for perhaps over a century.
Contact: Mike Maunder (0181-332 5583)
Biodiversity Conventions Officer
In May 1996, Kerry ten Kate took up her post as Kew's
Biodiversity Conventions Officer. Kew's implementation of the CBD
will be central to Kerry's work and her job will entail working
with staff across the Gardens to finalise, for example, codes of
conduct for collectors and material transfer agreements, and to
set up partnerships with countries in which Kew collects. She
will also develop model case studies and pilot projects in the
field on benefit sharing and access to genetic resources. On
Kew's behalf, she will continue to work with the secretariat of
the CBD and advise the UK delegation in negotiations on
biological diversity such as the Subsidiary Body on Scientific,
Technical and Technological Advice to the CBD and its Conference
of the Parties.
By background Kerry is a barrister, but for the last six years
she has worked in environmental policy. She served for two years
on the Secretariat of the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (the Rio 'Earth Summit') and directed
Environmental Strategies, a consultancy in sustainable
development.
Contacts: Kerry ten Kate (0181-332 5741)
Noel McGough (0181 332 5722)
Rubiaceae of Madagascar
The training of a Madagascan researcher is an important component
of a new three-year project, funded by The Leverhulme Trust, on
the biodiversity of the Rubiaceae of Madagascar. This family is
the second largest in Madagascar with over 800 species (ca 8% of
the island's flora) but is amongst the least known. The project
aims to produce a much-needed identification manual to genera
(which will stimulate further research in this neglected family),
an interactive specimen database (that will also be used within
Kew's conservation GIS programme), and a provisional species
checklist and revision of the economically important genus
Coffea. The project's principal researcher, Dr Aaron Davis, will
work under the direction of Diane Bridson and Dr David Du Puy.
Contact:
Diane Bridson (0181-332 5227)
Biodiversity Research Training Courses
Herbarium Techniques
In March 1996 Kew ran its second Herbarium Techniques course
overseas sponsored by the Darwin Initiative. The course venue was
the Forestry Research Institute Malaysia at Kepong near Kuala
Lumpur. Three Kew staff members formed the core lecture team with
counterparts from Malaysia and the Natural History Museum,
London.
The three-week course, attended by 22 participants from Malaysia
and Singapore, provided a mixture of lectures, practicals and
field trips, culminating in a three-day field trip at Pasoh
Forest Reserve. This highly successful course not only provided a
worthwhile learning experience for the participants but
strengthened relations between the institutes involved and paves
the way for further courses elsewhere.
Contact: Dr David Simpson (0181-332 5260)
Threatened Plants
The first Darwin Initiative funded Certificate Course for the
Cultivation and Conservation of Threatened Plant Species was held
at Kew this summer and was for students from UK-dependent
territories. One of the participants, Sinead Doherty (Falklands
government), has since initiated a collaborative recovery plan
for the Falklands endemic Calandrinia feltonii, with the support
of Kew and the NGO Falklands Conservation. The plant is thought
to be extinct in the wild due to sheep grazing but survives in
gardens on the islands and in the UK.
Contact: Mike Maunder (0181-332 5583)
In June, Roger Smith and Dr Robin Probert gave a course on
seed conservation techniques to 60 Brazilian scientists at
UNESP-University, Brazil. Opportunities for collaboration with
the Millennium Seed Bank project were also explored with several
institutions in Brazil.