May 2007
bulletin français
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Upcoming educational events: (Events are posted in the language(s) June 10-14, 2007 June 26-30, 2007 June 26-30, 2007 June 27, 2007 July 1–5, 2007 July 1-6, 2007 July 2-6, 2007/ du 2 au 6 juillet 2007 July 7–11, 2007 July 23 - 24, 2007 September 10 - 12, 2007 September 17 - 21, 2007 September 30, 2007 October 8 - 12, 2007 October 15 - 19, 2007 October 22 - 26, 2007 May 19-30, 2008 November 14-17, 2007 |
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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 dgalbraith@rbg.ca |
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Acknowledgements We would like thank the following for their contributions and support: Translation: Élizabeth Eudes-Pascal and Matthew Everitt |
| Editorial Dear readers,
In order to highlight the International Day for Biological Diversity, May 22nd, this edition of the Newsletter is devoted to the topic of Biological Diversity and Climate Change. As such, several articles address this increasingly important and topical issue. This Newsletter is above all your Newsletter: we trust that you will feel free to share your viewpoints on the topics that matter to you, in any way you deem fit. We’ve adopted a new format which is more reader-friendly as it relates to the length of articles. We strongly encourage you to share your ideas, comments, topics of interest, and articles with us. You will notice that this edition is entirely bilingual: all the articles are presented in French and English. For budgetary reasons, it will unfortunately be impossible for us to maintain this level of bilingualism in the following editions, and we will have to limit translations to the summary of articles. As such, we would invite you to submit your articles in both official languages, if at all possible. With particular thanks to our collaborators for their contributions for this edition of the Newsletter, Happy reading! Yann Vergriete 1. A note from CBCN Executive Director, David Galbraith, Royal Botanical Gardens
2. Message from Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary to the Convention on Biological Diversity on the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity, May 22nd 2007
3. Plant conservation in a changing world, Suzanne Sharrock, BGCI
4. Preparing to Launch the North American Botanic Gardens Conservation Strategy, David Galbraith, Royal Botanical Gardens
5. Biodiversity, climate change, and cultural diversity, Alain Cuerrier, Jardin Botanique de Montréal
Mr. Tivi Etok 6. The urgent need for biodiversity information, Tom Hammond, IUCN
7. Adapting to a Changing World, Krista Blackborow & Dianne Watkins, Biodiversity Convention Office of Environment Canada
Photo: Biodiversity Convention Office, Environment Canada 8. The Canadian University Biodiversity Consortium and a new biodiversity center at the Montréal Botanical Garden, Anne Bruneau, Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, Université de Montréal
Anne Bruneau 9. Stopping the Green Invasion! Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden Takes Aim at Invasive Alien Species, Costa Kasimos & Joy Barfoot, MUN Botanical Garden
Centaurea nigra 10. What’s Coming Up at CITES CoP 14, Adrianne Sinclair, CITES Scientific Advisor for Plant Trade
11. Letter from Wuhan: A report on the Third Global Botanic Gardens Congress, David Galbraith, Royal Botanical Gardens
Congress delegates at the botanical garden
prior to the official meeting
12. The Montréal Botanical Garden Formally Reinforces its Commitment to Biodiversity Conservation, and hosts a Wollemi Pine, Yann Vergriete, Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, The Montréal Botanical Garden
Photo: The Montréal Botanical Garden 13. Meeting of the Canadian Pollination Protection Initiative
From left to right: Laurie Adams ; Vernon
Thomas ; Peter Kevan ; Anne Breau ; Maria MacRae ; Elizabeth Kilvert
; Charles Caccia ; Steve Javorek ; David Suzuki (special guest). 14. Summer is around the corner. Make it count! Join the Pollination Canada Buzz, Valérie Girard, Seeds of Diversity Canada
15. First Sustainability Camp: a Success, John Platenius, Tofino Botanical Gardens Foundation
Sustainability Camp students cleaning
up plastic debris on Long Beach as part of the curriculum's pollution
module. 16. Earth Day Celebration at UBC Botanical Garden, Nadine Diner, UBC Botanical Garden
Photo: UBC Botanical Garden
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We
are happy to present the new edition of the Canadian Botanical Conservation
Network Newsletter, a newly combined effort with the Canadian Botanical
Gardens Educator’s Network Newsletter. This collaboration
will offer a forum for exchange wherein the various issues regarding
the conservation of plant biodiversity are addressed (scientific,
applied and public awareness issues). This new approach will also
enable us to work together to ensure the long-term continuity of
this relationship. 
I'd
like to welcome all CBCN Newsletter and Canadian Botanic Gardens
Education Newsletter readers to our first joint issue! Starting
with this issue, CBCN Newsletter, which has been published in various
forms since 1996, will be merged and updated by the addition of
the newsletter of the Canadian Botanic Gardens Educators Network
as established under Investing in Nature: A Partnership for Plants
in Canada.
Climate
change is real. The UN’s lead scientific authority on climate
change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its most
recent report, prepared by 2500 experts from 130 countries, has
indicated that the concentration of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere
is of a level not seen for some 650,000 years. The cause: human
activities. 
The
world’s climate is presently changing more rapidly than at
any time in human history. Such climatic changes are intimately
connected with plants, which harness the energy of the sun through
photosynthesis and maintain ecosystems for all life on earth. According
to recent estimates, more than 100,000 plant species are currently
threatened with extinction. However, the rate of extinction is expected
to increase further as global temperatures continue to rise, and
as many as half of the estimated 400,000 plant species in existence
today may be under threat. 
There
has been an almost continuous effort since 2000 to link the missions
and programs of botanical gardens around the world with international
movements like the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity,
and the more recent Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. The
newest publication in this effort is being published this summer
and is called the North American Botanic Gardens Conservation Strategy.
Most
people, researchers and laymen alike, view biodiversity in terms
of biology without giving due consideration to First Nations and
their cultural components. More and more publications and studies
acknowledge the importance of putting culture in the biodiversity
equation. But the merging of scientific and traditional knowledge
is still far from equal. The balance shifts inexorably towards science
which then reduces tradition to a mere quotation of good will. In
the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), cultural diversity has also
been established as an important role (see Art. 8j). Not only are
rare, endangered or vulnerable species to be protected but so are
medicinal species and, moreover, species used in ritual or those
who have simply a local, social importance. In order to protect
any taxon, it is essential to make use of all available data. 
Environmental
degradation and species loss continue to accelerate. Around the
world, conservation and scientific organizations are working against
time to close critical knowledge gaps in order to conserve biodiversity
and the Earth’s life support systems. Investment and development
decisions are often taken with an incomplete picture of potential
impacts on biodiversity. While solutions may be found to reverse
these trends, this will only be possible with comprehensive data,
information and knowledge on the conservation and sustainable use
of biodiversity. 
In keeping with this
year’s International Biodiversity Day theme, the April 16,
2007 meeting of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Biodiversity
Working Group in Winnipeg, Manitoba included a one-day symposium
on Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation. 
The
Canadian University Biodiversity Consortium is a partnership headed
by the Université de Montréal, in collaboration with
the universities of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba,
Toronto, Guelph, York, McGill, Laval, Acadia and Memorial, the Montreal
Botanical Garden, University of British Columbia Botanical Garden,
Devonian Botanical Garden, Harriet Irving Botanical Garden, Memorial
University Botanical Garden and the Royal Ontario Museum. The Consortium
was recently funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation programme
to a total of 16 million dollars. This Consortium unites Canadian
researchers from multiple disciplines, renowned for their expertise
in a diversity of taxonomic groups, tools and approaches. 
If
you’ve ever driven onto one of the ferries leaving Newfoundland,
you’ve probably been pleasantly surprised by the complimentary
car wash…until you see that they only cleaned the bottom of
your car. This is but one of many programs across the country designed
to prevent the spread of invasive alien species; in this case the
Golden Nematode (a potato disease). Canada, as well as mostother
countries, has been forced to deal with the multi-billion dollar
problems associated with alien species. 
The
14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to CITES (Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species) will take place from
June 3 to 15, 2007, in the Hague, Netherlands. The CoP meets every
three years to amend the list of species regulated under the Convention
in Appendices I and II. Species listed in Appendix I are endangered
because of international trade and those in Appendix II could become
endangered if trade is not regulated. 
Botanic
Gardens Conservation International, Wuhan Botanical Garden and the
Chinese Academy of Sciences organized a very exciting and productive
global congress for botanical gardens involved in conservation in
April, 2007. 
The
City of Montreal recently signed an agreement bringing together
Muséums nature Montréal (the Montréal Botanical
Garden being one of its four constituents) with the Steering Committee
of the Consortium of Scientific Partners on Biodiversity (from the
international Convention on Biological Diversity). The sharing of
expertise and the development of knowledge as it relates to species
conservation will be highly beneficial. Moreover, with 1.7 million
annual visitors, the Museums offer an exceptional window from which
the Secretariat, as well as the issues connected to the loss of
biological diversity, can communicate their messages to a larger
audience. 
The
first meeting of the Canadian Pollinator Protection Initiative (CPPI)
was held in Ottawa from January 18-19, 2007 and was attended by
over 80 delegates from the bee industry, federal and provincial
governments, academia, museums, and environmental and agricultural
NGOs. This Initiative represents an expansion of the North American
Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) into Canada and serves to
link Canadian pollinator conservation with similar activities in
the USA and Mexico. 
Seventy
percent of our food crops need insects for pollination. Most wild
plants, and small animals that eat seeds, could not survive without
them. Not only bees and butterflies; there are over 1000 species
of pollinating insects in Canada! Unfortunately, these beneficial
insects are under pressure from loss of habitat, loss of food sources,
disease, pesticides, and there is a growing concern about what impact
climate change will have on insect pollinators. As insect populations
are threatened, so are fruit and vegetable production, as well as
the wild ecosystems that depend on these pollinators. Information
is needed now, so that steps can be taken to preserve pollinator
populations. 
The
Tofino Botanical Gardens Foundation is pleased to announce that
its first Sustainability Camp was a resounding success. The goal
of Sustainability Camp is to increase youth knowledge and awareness
about global and local environmental issues, with the hope that
this increased awareness will help the next generation to develop
solutions and inspire action for positive environmental and social
change. 
The
UBC Botanical Garden is Canada's oldest continuously operating university
botanical garden, established in 1916 under the directorship of
John Davidson. The original mission of the garden was research into
the native flora of British Columbia. Since its inception, the mission
of the Garden has broadened. Our collections now include over 8000
different plants from around the globe in 12 000 separate accessions.
Many of these plants are wild-collected. Our mandate has also broadened
to include the use of our collections for the purposes of research,
conservation, teaching and public display. We find opportunities
in all Garden initiatives to connect these themes. 