An international group of researchers says that biodiversity conservation and scientific research are not benefiting from the vast knowledge about the world’s plants held by botanic gardens, because of fragmented data systems and a lack of standardization.
In a new report published in Nature Plants, researchers based at more than 50 botanic gardens and living plant collections warn that a patchwork of incompatible, or even absent, data systems is undermining global science and conservation at a critical moment.
They call for a unified and equitable global data system for living collections to transform how the world’s botanic gardens manage and share information. This would enable them to work together as a ‘meta-collection’ to strengthen scientific research and conservation efforts.
Climate change, invasive species, habitat loss and increased global movement of plant material all require rapid access to high-quality, trusted information about living plants. Achieving this depends on a shared culture of open, accurate, and affordable data—allowing living collections of all sizes, particularly in the Global South where much of the world’s biodiversity is located, to participate on equal terms.
Calls for unified global data
Curator of Cambridge University Botanic Garden Professor Samuel Brockington, who led the work together with researchers at Botanic Gardens Conservation International, said, “The digital infrastructure needed to manage, share, and safeguard living plant diversity wasn’t designed to operate at a global scale.”
He added, “We’ve built an extraordinary global network of living plant collections, but we’re trying to run twenty-first-century conservation with data systems that are fragmented, fragile, and in many cases inaccessible to scientists and conservationists working where most biodiversity originates. We urgently need a shared data system so the people managing collections can work together as a coordinated whole.”
