1.
A note from CBCN Executive Director, David Galbraith,
Royal Botanical Gardens
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.
This isn't the first time that we've brought two publications together.
In 1999, the CBCN Newsletter merged with Plant Collections Newsletter:
Canada, following a hiatus in the publication of the latter. Now
it's been two years since we've put together a full issue of the
CBCN Newsletter, and it's long overdue.
In part the gap in the publication schedule of CBCN Newsletter
was due to organizational constraints at CBCN's host institution,
the Royal Botanical Gardens. An update on RBG was published in the
previous CBCN Newsletter. The short version of the story is that
while RBG was undergoing substantial change the networking and outreach
afforded by CBCN was somewhat in doubt. That doubt has now been
erased, and RBG and CBCN once again have a robust partnership. The
role of the network in linking up botanical gardens across the country
is valued at all levels by our host institution.
For the time being, CBCN will be operated as a project of the Royal
Botanical Gardens, and we will continue to provide our services
to our members without charging membership fees. We may have to
return to asking for memberships in 2008, but for the calendar year
2007 at least, members will not be asked for fees to join or remain
on the membership list. This decision was made because we want to
encourage membership and participation much more than we need to
receive membership fees.
We welcome news from any institution or individual interested in
helping out with CBCN. Our critical new role as one of the partners
in the National Focal Point for Canada for the UN's Global Strategy
for Plant Conservation is exciting, but it also needs lots of participation
to be successful. In July I will be travelling to France to support
the participation of the Canadian delegation during the 12th meeting
of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological
Advice, or ABSTTA, of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This
working meeting is particularly important as it will include a detailed
review of the progress made to date around the world on the GSPC
itself. Following this meeting there will be more emphasis on the
GSPC in Canada, and the National Focal Point will be leading in
further consultations and program development. Among other things,
we are hoping to use the CBCN Newsletter as the medium of communication
linked to the National Focal Point for the GSPC.
Leading the project to put this issue together is our new editor,
Yann Vergriete. Yann is based out of the Montreal Botanical Garden,
and is leading the project to develop new educational resources
for botanical gardens in Canada, a direct descendent of the original
Investing in Nature: A Partnership for Plants in Canada project.
His project, with support from the Museum Assistance Program of
the Department of Canadian Heritage, is the third of three elements
originally planned for MAP support. The first was a small-grants
program in aid of educational and conservation programs at botanical
gardens across Canada (2003-2004). The second MAP project supported
adding increased content to educational web sites of botanical gardens
and arboreta across Canada, as well as the development of the web
pages for Canada on the BGCI web site (www.bgci.org/canada).
![](http://www.bgci.org/files/Canada/images/home.jpg)
![](http://www.bgci.org/files/Canada/images/partnership_for_plants.jpg)
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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
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