Paper short abstract:

Botanical gardens have long collected and preserved local and indigenous knowledge associated with their plant collections. Increasing the accessibility of this knowledge offers unique opportunities to support conservation of local and indigenous knowledge in partnership with communities.

Paper long abstract:

The Convention on Biological Diversity calls for parties to “respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity”. Botanical gardens have effected this not only through diverse plant collections but also through recording and sharing knowledge on plants used as foods, medicines, etc. Through gardens, local and indigenous knowledge — in the form of plant names, uses, cultivation techniques, and cultural values — has been incorporated into Western scientific nomenclature, medicine, and aesthetics. Ex situ conservation of knowledge continues in the wealth of information associated with botanical gardens’ living plants, herbarium specimens, and other collections, as well as in their active ethnobotanical research programs.

Modern botanic gardens, including the Missouri Botanical Garden, have sought to repatriate local and indigenous knowledge to support in situ conservation. A basic and broad method is increasing information availability, which is also a form of benefit sharing. Making data and knowledge available online in free and accessible formats dramatically increases their potential to support community involvement and use and helps to center local and indigenous knowledge in botanical science. More targeted methods include the translation of ethnobotanical information into appropriate formats including multi-lingual publications (online or in print), and/or audio-visual representations. Such knowledge sharing undertaken by botanical gardens can also support communities in which knowledge transmission has been interrupted. Networks that connect institutions to communities offer great future promise for new relationships that allow ongoing involvement.