Conservation of Threatened Plants

During the last hlO hundred years man has changed from living in equilibrium with the natural world which sustained him, to a new position in which he is now its undisputed ruler - and very often out of equilibrium - able in a matter of hours to reduce miles of forest to devastated, potential desert. This destructive and wasteful ability has increas~d dramatically over recent years. At the same time however the need for conservation, particularly of plants as a resource for the future, has also become apparent, along with the realisation that advanced technologies can produce more from existing agricultural and forest regions. This may to some extent relieve the heavy pressure on the vulnerable areas where short term over-exploitation leads to permanent destruction of whole ecosystems, and the attendant loss, for ever, of many of the animals and plants which originally lived there. There still remains today a vast number of plant species whose potential is unknown. Maybe they will never have more than aesthetic value to mankind. But who knows where, for example, the next anti­ cancer agent may be found. And anyway future generations may not be ready to accept such anthropocentric values, and the options should be kept open for the philosophical concept that all life on earth has a right to exist and that man has none to exterminate.

Contenu

Section I Conservation-Orientated Collections.- The Global Problems of Conservation and the Potential Role of Living Collections.- Section Discussion.- Section II Existing Collections.- Past: Aims and Objectives.- Present: The Resource Potential of Existing Living Plant Collections.- Future: Integrated International Policies.- Section Discussion.- Section III Techniques of Cultivation.- Mesembryanthemums and the Problems of Their Cultivation.- The Arctic Glasshouse.- Technical Description of the Arctic Glasshouse (Greenland House) in the Botanical Garden in Copenhagen.- Propagation of Hawaiian Endangered Species.- Section Discussion.- Section IV Documentation.- The Records System of Uppsala Botanic Garden.- The Use of Records Systems in the Planning of Botanic Garden Collections.- Preliminary List of Botanic Garden Catalogues, Inventories, etc..- The Future and Electronic Data Processing.- Index Systems for Special Collections as Illustrated by the Orchidaceae.- Section Discussion.- Supplementary Colloquy on Records Systems.- Section V Conservation of Horticultural Plants.- Introductory Paper I.- Introductory Paper II.- Section Discussion.- Section VI Techniques of Collecting.- Sampling Gene Pools.- Ethics and Attitudes.- Section Discussion.- Section VII Functions of Conservation-Orientated Collections in Research.- Genetic Factors to be Considered in Maintaining Living Plant Collections.- Reproductive Physiology.- Autecology.- Section VIII Adjuncts to Conservation-Orientated Collections.- Seed Banks.- The Role of Seed Lists in Botanic Gardens Today.- Section Discussion.- Section IX Botanic Gardens in Relation to Public Education.- Colloquy: Education in Relation to Plant Collections.- Section Discussion.- Section X International Co-Operation and Legislation.- Chairman (i).- The Time Scale of Concern.- A Report of the International Association of Botanic Gardens, Plenary Session, Moscow 1975.- Chairman (ii).- International Co-operation among Conservation-Orientated Botanical Gardens and Institutions.- Conservation: Recent Developments in International Co-operation and Legislation.- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.- Section Discussion.- Resolutions.- Resolutions.- List of Delegates and Participants.- List of Organising Staff.- List of Exhibits and Exhibitors.