Ex Situ Plant Conservation: Supporting Species Survival In The Wild
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Ex Situ Plant Conservation: Supporting Species Survival In The Wild
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Overview
targeted plant and animal species in "off-site" facilities such as botanic gardens and zoos. Such ex situ work is an increasingly important component of conservation and restoration efforts.
Ex Situ Plant Conservation, edited by Edward O. Guerrant Jr., Kayri Havens, and Mike Maunder, is the first book to address integrated plant conservation strategies and to examine the scientific, technical, and strategic bases of the ex situ approach. The book examines where and how ex situ investment can best support in situ conservation. Ex Situ Plant Conservation outlines the role, value, and limits of ex situ conservation as well as updating best management practices for the field, and is an invaluable resource for plant conservation practitioners at botanic gardens, zoos, and other conservation organizations; students and faculty in conservation biology and related fields; managers of protected areas and other public and private lands; and policymakers and members of the international community concerned with species conservation.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781559638753 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Island Press |
| Publication date: | 01/01/2004 |
| Series: | The Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration Series , #3 |
| Edition description: | 1 |
| Pages: | 536 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d) |
About the Author
Michael Maunder is Director of the Fairchild Tropical Garden in Coral Gables, Florida.
Read an Excerpt
Ex Situ Plant Conservation
Supporting Species Survival in the Wild
By Edward O. Guerrant Jr., Kayri Havens, Michael Maunder
ISLAND PRESS
Copyright © 2004 Island PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-55963-875-3
CHAPTER 1
Ex Situ Methods: A Vital but Underused Set of Conservation Resources
MIKE MAUNDER, KAYRI HAVENS, EDWARD O. GUERRANT JR., AND DONALD A. FALK
Botanic gardens and other ex situ facilities such as seed banks are among the most extensive yet underused plant conservation resources in the world. For them to make a truly meaningful difference in how much plant diversity survives into the next century, ex situ plant conservation providers need to not only use the most effective and efficient means possible, but also increase their institutional capacity. In a sobering global review of the threats to biological diversity, Myers et al. (2000: 853) found that the "number of species threatened with extinction far outstrips available conservation resources, and the situation looks set to become rapidly worse." This statement summarizes the challenge facing ex situ conservation at a time when the absolute need for in situ conservation has never been greater and the threats facing species diversity are increasing in type, severity, and scale.
The world's botanic gardens and other ex situ facilities, such as seed banks, are among the most concentrated sites of species richness on the planet, in effect artificial centers of species diversity. The world's 1,800 botanic gardens hold an estimated 2.5 million accessions of growing plants representing about 80,000 species (Wyse Jackson 2001). These vast collections have been accumulated over many decades and represent a huge investment in human resources and infrastructure. This book reviews the effective role of ex situ collections and assesses the values and limitations of ex situ plant conservation techniques.
The vast majority of ex situ samples, even those intended for conservation, have been collected on an ad hoc basis because they may be needed in the future for some unspecified purpose by an unspecified client. In addition, these collections are heavily skewed toward the cultivation of small and non–genetically representative samples of horticulturally amenable taxa and often suffer from poor documentation (Maunder et al. 2001b, 2001c). The majority of threatened species held in botanic garden collections are not specifically managed for conservation purposes and are characterized by a number of shared genetic and demographic characteristics (Box 1.1). However, the composition, status, and management of collections are rapidly improving as more facilities adopt conservation responsibilities. The recurring theme of this book is clearly outlined by Stanley Price et al. in Chapter 5: Where and how can ex situ investment make the most difference to in situ conservation?
Plant conservation facilities operate under the premise that they contribute conservation services to a variety of different clients. The primary role, retaining samples of wild plant diversity under artificial and accessible conditions, has been ratified in a number of professional guidelines (BGCI 2001) and international policy documents (IUCN/UNEP/WWF 1980, 1991; Glowka et al. 1994). However, these services are provided by a range of institutions and facilities of diverse historical heritage that share few common standards or protocols for the management, documentation, and display of threatened plant material. The majority of ex situ facilities were developed and still serve as facilities for growing and displaying token or at least genetically nonrepresentative samples of taxonomic diversity. The challenge is to use the most effective tools and processes and to serve these agreed roles of maintaining offsite collections and making them available for restoration and other conservation purposes.
The number of ex situ conservation facilities has increased dramatically in recent years (Wyse Jackson 2001), and they have become increasingly integrated under national and regional conservation initiatives. Nevertheless, many authorities hesitate to use them as a fundamental and effective component of plant conservation. This reluctance may originate from a number of perceptions. First, that ex situ conservation may undermine the integrity of, and need for, in situ conservation by devaluing wild populations and habitats. Second, it may reflect a lack of professional confidence in the technical ability of ex situ facilities to hold genetically diverse samples of threatened plant germplasm over extended periods of time. Much of the concern probably is based on a lack of understanding of what ex situ options exist and what their strengths and limitations are. For instance, storing seed is very different, in terms of both financial costs and biological risks, from maintaining a cultivated collection. Third, ex situ collections can be viewed as potential conservation liabilities, a source of new invasives and pathogens that can affect wild populations and habitats (Reichard and White 2001).
Ex situ conservation at its crudest may temporarily hold token samples of wild plant diversity. At best it can play a critical role as one component of an integrated conservation response supporting a primary objective: the retention and restoration of wild plant diversity. However, to achieve this objective, improved working practices and facilities are needed. We contend that it is because ex situ tools are not widely understood that they are undervalued and therefore underused. Understanding and effectively communicating the relative conservation roles, values, opportunities, and challenges faced by seed storage and growing collections may be among the biggest challenges practitioners face. A major purpose of this volume is to explore the value, limits, and range of available ex situ tools.
The Plant Diversity Crisis
The old World Conservation Union (IUCN) survey of plant species conservation status indicates that about 33,400 plant species are threatened with extinction (Walter and Gillett 1998), or about 10 percent of the world's known 250,000–300,000 plant species. This IUCN survey records 380 plant extinctions (Walter and Gillett 1998), less than 1 percent of the recorded species of vascular plants. The plant extinctions recorded by the IUCN and World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC) reflect, in part, the geographic distribution of botanical knowledge and monitoring rather than actual rates of species loss. For the largest part of the planet there is no clear consensus on the rate of species and population loss, but this is improving as more IUCN Red Lists are undertaken. For example, in a review of recorded extinctions, rates of habitat conversion, and distribution of restricted endemic plant species for tropical Latin America, Koopowitz et al. (1994) produced estimates of recent extinctions that far exceed those the WCMC and IUCN record. This discrepancy is particularly notable for Brazil, where WCMC and IUCN recorded only five extinctions, whereas Koopowitz et al. estimate a loss since 1950 of about 2,200 species.
There is an acute need to act decisively, creatively, and effectively. Extinction rates for both species and populations are increasing as a result of human changes to habitats (Hannah et al. 1994; Hughes et al. 1997). This trend is accelerating as surviving wild areas become increasingly degraded through isolation, fragmentation, competition from invasive species, and climate change (Sala et al. 2000). The expected result, particularly in the endemic-rich hotspots (sensu Myers et al. 2000), will be many more plant extinctions.
The dearth of field survey work and the rapidity of habitat loss, particularly in the tropics, mean that many plant extinctions are likely to be identified only in retrospect, if at all. This raises the question, How should facilities, especially those in the high-diversity regions, most effectively allocate their limited resources? Should they focus a large proportion of their limited resources on managing a small number of threatened plant species, perhaps selected through an imperfect understanding of local conservation priorities? Or should they also use available resources for promoting and supporting the conservation of important habitat areas, such as recognized centers of plant diversity (Maunder et al. 2002; Chapter 5, this volume)? In addition to measuring yield from ex situ investment through increased taxonomic representation in cultivation or seed banks (e.g., scoring collections against national red lists), facilities could also score against quantitative assessments of genetic representation, contributions to implemented recovery plans, and the conservation of important plant habitats.
The Evolution of Ex Situ Plant Conservation
Botanic gardens, as scientifically organized plant collections, were originally initiated as repositories serving academic study, predominantly medical and theological (Prest 1981). In a time still dominated by an essentialist worldview dating back to Plato, curation was driven by the desire to accumulate typological specimens. They subsequently developed as resources for both colonial agriculture and taxonomic science (Osborne 1995; McCracken 1997). Only in the last 50 years of a 500-year post-Renaissance history have these collections and facilities been used to counter a human-mediated decline in species diversity. A specific ex situ conservation role could arguably develop only after the concept and reality of extinction, and in particular the role of humans in accelerating extinction rates, were first recognized and then accepted by the scientific community. Another foundational scientific advance that underlies current conservation thinking was the shift from an essentialistic, or typological, specimen-based approach to a populational view of the biological world (Mayr 1982). What it means to have a representative sample has profoundly changed. Rather than viewing individual differences as corrupt and imperfect manifestations of a Platonic ideal, biological variation has come to be appreciated as the raw material upon which natural selection acts and adaptive evolution depends. In other words, conservation of wild species as both a scientific and an ethical goal is a consequence of the revolution in late-eighteenth-and nineteenth-century scientific thought.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries two tree species were assumed to have become extinct in the wild and to have survived only in cultivation, namely Ginkgo biloba (Ginkgoaceae) from China (Wilson 1919) and Amherstia nobilis (Fabaceae) from Myanmar (Blatter and Millard 1993). These species, along with the U.S. endemic tree Franklinia alatamaha (Theaceae), appear to have been treated as isolated novelties and did not prompt a broad conservation response from the botanic garden community. The development of ex situ conservation reflected a cultural and scientific transition for plant collections from a focus on accumulating typological specimens as a curatorial goal to the adoption of population genetics as a working tool to conserve threatened species.
Contemporary concerns about the loss of plant diversity and the need for effective ex situ storage can be traced, at least in part, to the groundbreaking work of Vavilov (1926, 1949–1950), who first recognized the value of crop landraces and wild relatives in supporting agriculture. The specific role of botanic gardens in supporting wild plant diversity was explored by Cugnac (1953), who outlined the need for specific ex situ conservation facilities working in close association with protected areas, the jardin conservatoire.
The ark paradigm, the idea that ex situ facilities would hold stocks of threatened species during a period of habitat degradation (the "demographic winter" sensu Soulé et al. 1986), was established as a working objective by botanic gardens in the 1970s. For instance, Heslop-Harrison (1974: 31) saw cultivation as a necessary preliminary in which "the ultimate objective is to restore the devastation of former periods and rehabilitate an ecosystem." This paradigm is manifest in the first IUCN Plant Red Data Book (Lucas and Synge 1978: 305). For instance, the entry for Dracaena ombet (Liliaceae sensu lato) stated, "It seems too late for such a proposal [in situ conservation] to be worthwhile. Great efforts must now be made to bring the ombet into cultivation and maintain it safely in the botanic gardens of the world." An equally pessimistic view is expressed by Lavranos (1974: 23), who recognized "the utter futility of any thoughts on conservation in situ in such environments [NE Africa]." Lavranos proposed that "the only way to save threatened species is to get them into cultivation" out of the range country, with the hope that "we may see them reintroduced into the original biotope—if that still exists" (Lavranos 1974: 23). The ark paradigm, with ex situ conservation as an open-ended storage responsibility until a change in human demography and consciousness allowed species a wild future, is being replaced by the recognition that ex situ conservation can and should work in partnership with the management of extant wild populations. This reflects the perspective that ex situ conservation provides a service that answers the practical needs of the population manager and in situ agencies and is not a competing alternative to in situ conservation (Given 1987).
The Center for Plant Conservation (CPC) in the United States is a pioneer of a client-based model for ex situ conservation (Thibodeau and Falk 1987; Kennedy 2002). This shift in emphasis toward integrated strategies sensu Falk (1987, 1990) has led to the recognition that ex situ management can and should play an important role in species conservation in the wild (Falk et al. 1996). The activities and scientific approach of the CPC have generated productive debate on the conservation role of botanic gardens (Feldman 1996; Robertson 1996; White 1996). This has resulted in the development of working collaborations with protected area authorities and government agencies (McMahan 1995; Cotterman and Jones-Roe 1996) and the adoption of population genetics as a guiding tool for botanic garden conservation activities (CPC 1991; McMahan and Guerrant 1991; Mistretta 1994). The establishment of regional plant conservation strategic alliances reflects this collaborative approach. Examples encompass a variety of scales, from continental or national, as in the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (Mill 2002) and the Plant Conservation Alliance of the United States (Olwell, pers. comm., 2003), to regional plant conservation plans, as in Andalucía, Spain (Hernández-Bermejo and Clemente-Muñoz 1994), and the New England Plant Conservation Program (New England Wildflower Society 1992) in the United States. Thus, even traditional habitat-based conservation strategies are moving from hands-off approaches to more active and interventionist methods. This trend toward recovery and reintroduction creates a strategic opportunity for ex situ institutions to serve as active partners in species-based research and recovery projects (Falk and Olwell 1992; Falk et al. 1996; Guerrant and Pavlik 1997).
The value of ex situ conservation has been increasingly acknowledged in international treaties and legislation (Warren 1995). The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD; Glowka et al. 1994) provides a major opportunity for ex situ facilities to establish themselves as valued resources serving stated national needs (BGCI 2001). However, it also brings ex situ activities into critical review, particularly with regard to the ownership and distribution of plant material. The CBD recognizes the value of ex situ conservation (Box 1.2), with an emphasis on undertaking these activities "preferably in the country of origin" and as a support to the "recovery and rehabilitation of threatened species and for their reintroduction into their natural habitats" (Glowka et al. 1994: 52). Practitioners are increasingly recognizing the need to be responsive to national priorities for biodiversity. This is encouraging practitioners to integrate plant conservation and biodiversity issues with broader agendas so that decision makers recognize the congruency of agendas, for instance in the areas of sustainable development, habitat restoration, healthcare, ecosystem services, and education.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Ex Situ Plant Conservation by Edward O. Guerrant Jr., Kayri Havens, Michael Maunder. Copyright © 2004 Island Press. Excerpted by permission of ISLAND PRESS.
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Table of Contents
Contents
ABOUT ISLAND PRESS,ABOUT THE SOCIETY FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION INTERNATIONAL,
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR PLANT CONSERVATION,
Title Page,
Copyright Page,
Dedication,
FOREWORD,
PREFACE,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,
INTRODUCTION,
PART ONE - The Scope and Potential of Ex Situ Plant Conservation,
Chapter 1 - Ex Situ Methods: A Vital but Underused Set of Conservation Resources,
Chapter 2 - In Situ and Ex Situ Conservation: Philosophical and Ethical Concerns,
Chapter 3 - Western Australia's Ex Situ Program for Threatened Species: A Model Integrated Strategy for Conservation,
Chapter 4 - The Role of Federal Guidance and State and Federal Partnerships in Ex Situ Plant Conservation in the United States,
Chapter 5 - Ex Situ Support to the Conservation o f Wild Populations and Habitats: Lessons from Zoos and Opportunities for Botanic Gardens,
PART TWO - Tools of the Trade,
Chapter 6 - Principles for Preserving Germplasm in Gene Banks,
Chapter 7 - Classification of Seed Storage Types for Ex Situ Conservation in Relation to Temperature and Moisture,
Chapter 8 - Determining Dormancy-Breaking and Germination Requirements from the Fewest Seeds,
Chapter 9 - Pollen Storage as a Conservation Tool,
Chapter 10 - Tissue Culture as a Conservation Method: An Empirical View from Hawaii,
Chapter 11 - Ex Situ Conservation Methods for Bryophytes and Pteridophytes,
PART THREE - The Ecological and Evolutionary Context of Ex Situ Plant Conservation,
Chapter 12 - Population Responses to Novel Environments: Implications for Ex Situ Plant Conservation,
Chapter 13 - Population Genetic Issues in Ex Situ Plant Conservation,
Chapter 14 - Integrating Quantitative Genetics into Ex Situ Conservation and Restoration Practices,
Chapter 15 - Effects of Seed Collection on the Extinction Risk of Perennial Plants,
Chapter 16 - Hybridization in Ex Situ Plant Collections: Conservation Concerns, Liabilities, and Opportunities,
Chapter 17 - Accounting for Sample Decline during Ex Situ Storage and Reintroduction,
PART FOUR - Using Ex Situ Methods Most Effectively,
REFERENCES,
Chapter 18 - Realizing the Full Potential of Ex Situ Contributions to Global Plant Conservation,
APPENDIX 1 - Revised Genetic Sampling Guidelines for Conservation Collections of Rare and Endangered Plants,
APPENDIX 2 - Guidelines for Seed Storage,
APPENDIX 3 - Guidelines for Ex Situ Conservation Collection Management: Minimizing Risks,
APPENDIX 4 - Ex Situ Plant Conservation Organizations and Networks,
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS,
INDEX,
Island Press Board of Directors,