• Home
• Science Strategy
• Science Teams
• Projects
  • Plant Diversity and Conservation in Bolivia
• People
• Publications
• Acronyms

Plant Diversity and Conservation in Bolivia

Jardín de Cactus de Bolivia: a community conservation project supported by Kew

This project is focused on documenting and conserving plant diversity in important and little-explored regions of Bolivia. A major collecting programme has delivered c. 16,000 herbarium collections since 1993. Initially Acanthaceae, Apocynaceae: Asclepiadoideae and Labiatae were targeted in a programme of general collecting to supplement Kew’s largely historic collections from the region. Subsequently, under Darwin Initiative funding (2002-2005), the programme has focused particularly on documenting diversity and endemism in the central inter-Andean dry valley system of the Río Grande, and detailed studies of additional plant families such as Bromeliaceae, Cactaceae and Leguminosae.

Outputs have so far included 15 published papers in total, with six either submitted or in preparation on systematics and/or evolutionary relationships in families Acanthaceae, Labiatae, Apocynaceae, Thymelaeaceae, Boraginaceae and Bignoniaceae.  A field-guide to plants of the Río Grande valley system was published in December 2005, and six local botanists have been trained and mentored through a Darwin Initiative project based at Oxford.

Having identified a number of key areas of plant diversity in the region, the project is working to establish applied, conservation-focused research initiatives within them.  The first sub-project, began in 2006 (funded by Kew’s partnership with Rio Tinto), is focused on an area of particularly high cactus endemism.

The Jardín de Cactus de Bolivia is a small, emerging botanical garden in the Municipality of Comarapa, Santa Cruz.  The garden (currently covering about 20ha) is sited in a natural area of cactus scrub, and the project involves protection and management of natural vegetation as well as cultivation.  It is planned that the collection of cactus and bromeliad species in the area will be enriched with species occurring naturally in the surrounding area, providing a centre of information for the local flora and promoting conservation.

Kew has provided technical and financial support to this initiative including vegetation survey, botanical inventory and specialist training in Cactus propagation. Additional surveys, due to be conducted in selected areas of conservation priority in the region, will focus on the production of user-friendly vegetation guides and capacity building among local organisations and communities. This work draws on Kew's taxonomic expertise in a number of key plant families represented in the dry forest vegetation of Bolivia's central Andean valleys.

Kew Home | Science Directory | Copyright & Privacy