HELP SAVE BUTTERFLY-BOTANIA (Joensuu, Finland)!

The ex-situ conservation of threatened plant species worldwide relies on the large variety of botanic gardens worldwide, with the typical variation in skills and knowledge. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation depends on botanic gardens assuming responsibility. If governments and financing bodies do not take responsibility for this important activity, who will? If we start asking ourselves the question: why should we be part of that huge conservation effort, botanic gardens will start to collapse, one by one. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation will fail, and thus the Convention on Biologial Diversity, of which the GSPC is an integral part, will fail. While the political levels are increasing the expectations towards all stakeholders involved in the conservation effort, dictated by the urgency to stop the Biodiversity Crisis, more and more botanic gardens throughout the world are threatened by closure. At a time when we need more commitment, where e.g. the Invasive Species policy is developing, in which botanic gardens can and must play an active role, we cannot accept the closing down of individual botanic gardens, since it not ony affects the local situation, but also aggravates the burden for the remaining gardens.