News Published: 31 October 2024

Episode 6 is here, and we are talking to some of our non-botanic garden (WHAT?!) partners about how their work compliments ours and helps with conservation at a species level.  

Our first interview is with Michael Clifford from Reverse the Red. Reverse the Red is working to reverse the trends of the IUCN Red List, through data driven, collaborative efforts. BGCI is one of the executive members of the Reverse the Red, representing its membership and ensuring that botanic gardens and botanical institutes are involved, and their knowledge can be shared to have maximum impact. More broadly Reverse the Red works with the IUCN SSC Specialist groups to ensure they have the knowledge and skills across their practitioners to carry out conservation action – learning from examples that have already been successful across the conservation world. 

Our second interview is with Amy McDougall from Birdlife. She speaks to us about her experiences within the conservation sector and their work, alongside BGCI, with the Friends of Species group. Friends of Species brings together the policy expertise of many like-minded organisations all working towards taking species level conservation action and implementing Target 4 of the Global Biodiversity Framework. We will go into detail about why this collaboration is essential in the podcast. 

Target Reminder:  

Target 4 – Halt Species Extinction, Protect Genetic Diversity, and Manage Human-Wildlife Conflicts 

Ensure urgent management actions to halt human induced extinction of known threatened species and for the recovery and conservation of species, in particular threatened species, to significantly reduce extinction risk, as well as to maintain and restore the genetic diversity within and between populations of native, wild and domesticated species to maintain their adaptive potential, including through in situ and ex situ conservation and sustainable management practices, and effectively manage human-wildlife interactions to minimize human-wildlife conflict for coexistence). 

Reverse the Red and Friends of Species gives BGCI the opportunity to learn from others, engaging with different parts of the KMGBF and their experiences with other audiences, which all supports our work to deliver the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC). Both aim to provide support to implement the Global Species Action Plans (GSAPs) and National Biodiversity Action Plans (NBSAPs) to support national contribution to the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) – those pesky acronyms strike again!   

Thank you so much for supporting our brand-new podcast, we really hope you enjoyed it. Please remember to like, review, and subscribe, and maybe share it with your friends!  

Thanks, 

Rebecca & Megan 😊 

Other useful links: 

• Want to learn more about Reverse the Red’s Species Pledges? Click here  
• Want to learn more about Reverse the Red’s World Species Congress? Click here  
• Want to learn more about the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)? Click here  
• Want to learn more about Global Species Action Plans (GSAPs)? Click here  
• Want to learn more about the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)? Click here 
• Want to learn more about BGCI’s Tree Conservation Programme? Click here  
• Want to learn more about the Global Botanic Garden Fund (GBGF)? Click here  
• Want to learn more about The Global Biodiversity Standard (TGBS)? Click here  
• Want to learn more about BGCI Membership? Click here  
• Want to learn more about Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA)? Click here or you can learn more about BGCI’s AZE methodology by clicking here.  
• Want to learn more about CITES? Click here  

Credits & Special Thanks: 

A huge thank you to our guests for this episode; Michael Clifford (Revers the Red) and Amy McDougall (Birdlife).  

Series 1 of BGCI: The Understory Podcast was written and researched by Rebecca Hansell and Megan Barstow, with assistance from Carly Cowell in the first stages of development. This episode was edited by Rebecca Hansell using Audacity, and originally recorded over Zoom. The music is by elemontary-music and the sound effects are by Trading Nation, both were sourced from Pixabay.