Volume 10, Issue 03
October 2007
bulletin français
Table of Contents
  1. Urgence Conservation: The involvement of the Montréal Botanical Garden in the safeguarding of Quebec’s plant heritage
  2. IUCN-SSC Plant Committee Gathers in Eastern Ontario
  3. CITES CoP14 Plants Results
  4. Plants for life: medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens
  5. Adopt-a-Plant
  6. Review of the First Conference on Phyto-Engineering in Québec

News Bites
1. Marie-Victorin à Cuba

Marie-Victorin a Cuba

A book by André Bouchard on Quebec's famous botanist. Read the press release.

2. EMAN Programmes Under Threat
It seems that the Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network is under threat of loosing most financial support from the federal government. A message we received invites us to communicate with the Minister of Environment to plea for this institution. > See original message:

3. Fifth World Environmental Education Congress
Not much information is available yet, but it seems that in 2009, the fifth World Environmental Education Congress will be held in Montreal. It will be co-hosted by researcher Lucie Sauvé, Canada Research Chair in Environmental Education. The goal of this congress would be to examine how to shift society from environmental awareness to environmental action.

More info: chaire.educ.env@uqam.ca

4. The ethnobotany of British home gardens
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew provide assistance to an interesting project called ‘the ethnobotany of British home gardens: diversity, knowledge and exchange’. The Department of Anthropology at the University of Kent started to inventory the biological resource from different kinds of home gardens in Kent as well as their use. The project will also study the social networks along which plants and knowledge are exchanged. The level to which gardening and garden produce can contribute financially to the household will also be researched.

More info: Project Website


Upcoming events:
(Events are posted in the language(s)
in which they are presented):

October 15 - 19, 2007
Fifth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions (WG8J-5)
Montreal, Canada
> Meeting Documents
> Meeting Outline

October 17, 2007
Second Meeting of the Steering Committee of the Consortium of Scientific Partners and Institutions
Paris, France
Contact: secretariat@cbd.int

October 22 - 26, 2007
Fourth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group of Legal and Technical Experts on Liability and Redress in the context of the Protocol
Montreal, Canada
Contact: secretariat@cbd.int

November 7-9, 2007
Biodiversity or Bust: Annual Botanic Gardens Education Network’s Conference
The Conference will explore how we can better deliver the education and public awareness target of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.
> More info

November 14-17, 2007
North American Environmental Education Association
2007 Conference

"Explore New Horizons for Environmental Education"
Virginia Beach, USA
> More info

November 19 - 23, 2007
Arctic Region Workshop on Indigenous Communities, Tourism and Biodiversity: New Information and Web-based Technologies
Quebec City, Canada
Contact: secretariat@cbd.int

May 12 – 16, 2008
Planet Diversity: World Congress on the Future of Food and Farming
Bonn, Germany
> More info
Conference overview (English PDF, PDF en français)

May 19-30, 2008
Ninth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-9)
Bonn, Germany
> More info

October 5 - 14, 2008
The World Conservation Forum
Barcelona, Spain
> More info

Le Forum mondial de la nature
Barcelone du 5 au 14 octobre 2008
> Plus d'info

November 20 - 22, 2008
World Biodiversity Congress
Chiang Mai, Thailand
> More info

2009
Fifth World Environmental Education Congress
Montreal, Canada
Contact: chaire.educ.env@uqam.ca


Subscription information
If you would like to subscribe, have any questions or if would like to contribute a news item, please contact Yann Vergriete, newsletter editor or David Gailbraith, CBCN executive director:

yannvergriete@fastmail.fm
(514) 872-5420

dgalbraith@rbg.ca
(905) 527-1158 ext. 309


Acknowledgements
We would like thank the following for their contributions and support:

Translation: Élizabeth Eudes-Pascal, Eugénie Pascal and Matthew Everitt
Design & Layout: Cheryl Fraser
Sponsors: Department of Canadian Heritage, Museums Assistance Program
Partners: Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Canadian Botanical Conservation Network, and the Montréal Botanical Garden

Dear readers,

The working group for the Canadian Outreach Guide to Plant Biodiversity Education convened at the Montréal Botanical Garden September 12-14th for an extremely pleasant and productive meeting. I wish to extend a heartfelt thank you to the participants for contributing their time to share their ideas. The work is not yet complete, but the guide is beginning to take shape. In fact, the exciting news is that a web site is being created (www.plantbiodiversity.ca), which should be operational by the end of the year. This site aims to serve as a support tool and resource for educators in botanical gardens, zoos and museums across Canada. It will present a combination of activities related to outreach education and will also serve as a resource, providing links to organizations involved in plant conservation, tips for financing educational projects, as well as displaying a selection of national curriculum objectives related to plant biodiversity education.

The website plantbiodiversity.ca will remain ‘under development’, and we will count on the contribution from members to support and help the site develop. We are designing a simple process to add content and you will be invited to do so during your visits.

Thank you to all of the authors who have contributed articles for this edition of the newsletter!

Cordially,
Yann

1. Urgence Conservation: The involvement of the Montréal Botanical Garden in the safeguarding of Quebec’s plant heritage, Stéphanie Pellerin, Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, The Montréal Botanical Garden


From left to right: Charlène Heiniger and Nathalie Laplante
Photo: Jacinthe Letendre

In 2001 the Montréal Botanical Garden inaugurated the Urgence-Conservation program, with the aim of conserving off-site the threatened flora of Southern Quebec. At the time, a score of rare species were already present in the collections of the Garden. Today, due to harvest and propagation activities, the collection of rare Quebec plants at the Montréal Botanical Garden has risen to 104 species. Although the off-site conservation is a worthwhile venture, it is not meant to replace the conservation efforts in the natural environment. Accordingly, a new phase aiming at on-site conservation of rare plants was added in 2006 to the Urgence-Conservation program. > more

2. IUCN-SSC Plant Committee Gathers in Eastern Ontario, Danna Leaman, Co-deputy chair, IUCN-SSC Plant Conservation Sub-Committee


IUCN-SSC Plant Commitee
Photo: IUCN

In mid September, members and guests of the Plant Conservation Sub-Committee of the Species Survival Commission, the World Conservation Union, gathered for a two-day strategy session in Lanark County, Eastern Ontario. Foremost on the agenda was a review of the activities of the IUCN network of plant specialist groups during the current IUCN quadrennium (2005-2008), and articulating the network’s priorities through 2012. > more

3. CITES CoP14 Plants Results, Adrianne Sinclair, CITES Scientific Advisor for Plant Trade


Photo: The CITES Secretariat

The 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP14) to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) took place from June 3-15, in The Hague, Netherlands. There were 1250 participants representing 151 governments, inter-government and non-government organizations. The CoP meets every three years to amend the list of species regulated under the Convention in Appendices I and II. Decisions on proposals are taken by a two-thirds majority of representatives present and voting. Sixteen scientific proposals were submitted to amend the listings for flora. > more

4. Plants for life: medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens, Belinda Hawkins, BGCI


Photo: BGCI

For the past year, BGCI has been working for the conservation of medicinal plant species via our project, ‘Safety nets for medicinal plants’. The first stage of the project was to gather data on key medicinal plant species and upload this information onto the PlantSearch database. The second phase of the project was undertaking a broad consultation exercise, begun at the Third Global Botanic Gardens Congress in Wuhan, China in April this year. These responses and other inputs have resulted in the publication of our report; ‘Plants for life: medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens’, due to be distributed at the end of October this year. > more

5. Adopt-a-Plant, René J. Belland, Devonian Botanic Garden


Photo: Devonian Botanic Garden

Adopt-a-Plant Alberta is a new initiative whose goal is to involve plant enthusiasts in the collection of information for use in reporting the status of endangered species within the province. The program was born from the recognition that many plants may be at risk of extirpation within the province, but where the quality and quantity of information available about the species may not be sufficient to build a case that would result in a report of the species’ provincial status. Such reports are a prerequisite before a species can be considered for a status assessment. > more

6. Review of the First Conference on Phyto-Engineering in Québec, Jacques Brisson, University of Montréal

Green roofs, plant barriers, marsh filters and other Phyto-Technologies have made great strides in Quebec in recent years. On June 18th, the first conference on Phyto-Engineering in Quebec, organized by l’Institut de recherche en biologie végétale (the Plant Biology Research Institute), was held at the Henry-Teuscher Auditorium at the Montreal Botanical Garden. This conference had as its main goal to give a progress report on the use of plants as an alternative to traditional technologies, with the goal of improving environmental quality. > more

Resources

Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens
The Nature of Success: Success for Nature Congress was attended by more than 300 education professionals from around the world. The proceedings are now online.
> Get them

International Diploma Course in Botanic Garden Education
Thanks to this course, participants will have an understanding of all the aspects required to create an education master plan for their site.
> More info

Education e-update
BGCI has launched a new resource for botanic garden educators: the Education E-update. Sent to your inbox every month with news updates from BGCI and botanic gardens around the world; links to education resources and materials you can use in your programmes; profiles of plant-based conservation educators and programmes; and ideas and feedback from our readers.

Your contributions are also welcome for future issues. Contact e-update@bgci.org.

E-connections
The education team of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton launched an e-newsletter focussing on biodiversity.
> More info

My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant (MEERA)
MEERA tells you why and how to conduct evaluations and provides you with tools and methods to run your own evaluation. A discussion forum as well as examples of noteworthy evaluations are to come soon.
> More info

Introduction to Invasive Plants
The Crop Protection Compendium gives a list of interesting articles that introduce invasive plants issues.
> More info

New web-based educational resource for primary schools
A website exploring the themes of Conservation, Art and Plants, Food and Experimenting with Plant Growth will be available on-line from November 2007. There will be enough activities for many days of school work and some that can take place in botanic gardens.
> More info

Eco-Schools’ Linking and Itinerary System
The eco-school approach is intended to “raise students’ awareness of environmental and related sustainable development issues through classroom study together with school and community action, and provides an integrated system for environmental management of schools based on an ISO14001/EMAS approach”.

A search engine for participating schools has recently been created. With the ‘Linking and Itinerary System’ young people can visit each other schools virtually and understand their regional contexts and culture. This will promote networking, the exchange of ideas, etc.
> More Into


This message has been sent to you by A Partnership for Plants in Canada (a project supported by BGCI-Canada and the Montréal Botanical Garden) because you have expressed interest in receiving information from us. If this message has been received in error please notify yannvergriete@fastmail.fm. Click here to avoid receiving future e-mails from us.

Yann Vergriete
Project coordinator
Institut de recherche en biologie végétale
The Montréal Botanical Garden
4101, rue Sherbrooke Est
Montréal (Québec) H1X 2B2
CANADA

www.bgci.org/canada