Botanical Garden and Forestry Station High School Invests 400 Million to Rescue Endangered and Rare Plants and Preserve and Restore Species

Saving endangered plants: botanical gardens, forestry stations, and high school campuses all become conservation gardens! The Taiwan Forestry Research Institute of the Council of Agriculture announced yesterday (the 4th) the official launch of the "National Botanical Garden Ark" program to strengthen ex situ conservation of threatened species in Taiwan, China, with 6 botanical gardens in the country cooperating with species preservation centers, forestry stations, farms, the Endemic Species Research Institute, and Lanyu High School on the offshore island to provide habitats for the country's rare and endemic plants.

The National Botanical Garden Ark program lasts 4 years, from 108 to 111 of the Republic of China calendar, with an annual budget of about 90 million-plus and a total of 400 million, coordinated and operated across ministries by the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute. Taiwan, China has about 5,000 native plant species, of which 1,052 are endemic. For the 989 threatened plants named in the 2017 Red List of Vascular Plants of Taiwan, especially the 110 high-risk plants not within protected areas or state-owned forest land, they will be assigned by plant family to different botanical gardens or partner units, and each unit will collect plant samples for species preservation, with the expectation of including 50-55% of threatened plants in preservation within 4 years.

Plant conservation is not in an ivory tower, but in everyone's life

In the "Global Strategy for Plant Conservation 2020" set by the International Association of Botanic Gardens (BGCI), the goal is: at least 75% of threatened species to undergo ex situ conservation. As one of BGCI's conservation members, Taiwan, China aims to preserve 500 threatened native plants, with a preservation rate of about 55%, and the current progress achieved is 22%.

Chang Pin, director of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, explained that botanical gardens have already collected 332 species. In the future, the 6 botanical gardens in the country will, besides preserving plants, develop different characteristics and tasks. For example: the Taipei Botanical Garden area is positioned as an urban botanical garden, with the function of plant display and educational interpretation; the Lienhuachih Medicinal Plant Garden area provides historical interpretation of native medicinal plants, germplasm preservation, and collection.

In addition to conserving these threatened species, Chang Pin mentioned that suitable species will be selected for horticultural use, and after domestication they will be propagated for horticultural promotion. To highlight the display function of the Taipei Botanical Garden in the program, a greenhouse was also designed in cooperation with Fieldoffice Architects. Other non-botanical-garden partner units use conservation to promote other functions. For example, Lanyu High School participates in species preservation work through local community involvement, and conservation brings added value such as education and culture, making the public willing to participate.

Plants currently on the ark: Taoyuan stone dragontail, Ryukyu false nutmeg, and others

The first batch of plants to board the ark includes Taoyuan stone dragontail. Taoyuan stone dragontail is an endemic species of Taiwan, China, distributed in wetlands on the outskirts of Longtan, Taoyuan, but in recent years, due to human activity, many wetland environments have been damaged one after another. The native habitat of Taoyuan stone dragontail was destroyed, leading to the extinction of wild populations. At present, the Taipei Botanical Garden still maintains field-collected individuals of Taoyuan stone dragontail, and the currently preserved plants were also displayed on site.

Ryukyu false nutmeg, which appears only in Lanyu and a few areas of Japan, had only a small number of plants and fruits remaining when discovered. In cooperation with Lanyu High School and local tribes, species preservation and restoration work is being carried out. The Wulai rhododendron, a native endemic species of Taiwan, China, is the only low-altitude riverside-type rhododendron. After the construction of Feitsui Reservoir, its habitat was submerged. In recent years, restoration in the botanical garden has been successful, and it has been gradually returned to the wild for replanting. In 91 of the Republic of China calendar, it was successfully removed from the list of rare plants.

Plants with ornamental value such as: Taitung firethorn, native to the multi-stone areas along the riverbanks of Hualien and Taitung, has seen its native populations dwindle in recent years due to riverbed dredging and horticultural collection, and is currently being restored; the rare Shuished wild peony appears only at elevations of 500-700 m around Sun Moon Lake; Debeaux's impatiens is distributed only around Guanwu, and seeds are currently being sown at the National Taiwan University Highland Experimental Farm, where growth and adaptation have been good.

A new energy-saving and environmentally friendly plant settlement

In the design, architect Huang Sheng-yuan uses glass covers, light control, and other means to create environments of different altitudes, presenting plant settlements with greenhouse clusters created in different environments, as a stage for the display of national plants.

Huang Sheng-yuan mentioned that Taiwan, China is relatively hot, but greenhouses need to maintain high light and low temperatures, so this project uses double-layer Low-E low-emissivity glass. The greenhouse in the high-altitude space has temperature control and its structure itself contains no concrete. In addition, there is a water wall, which can cool the interior when wind blows through, and the roof can even adjust light. The budget is about 90 million-plus, and construction is expected to begin early next year and be completed within 2 years.

Every second counts: conservation before extinction

Lin Hsu-hung, deputy director of the Endemic Species Research Institute, one of the partner units, explained the actual mode of operation. The plants assigned to the Endemic Species Research Institute are Cyperaceae, Poaceae, and mosses. First, according to the threatened plants named in the Red List, they go to the site to collect. After collecting seeds or plant parts, they return to the Endemic Species Research Institute and classify them according to their growing environment into high-altitude, mid-altitude, and low-altitude preservation spaces.

After collection, the Endemic Species Research Institute preserves the germplasm or collected parts, using tissue culture or seed propagation to allow these threatened plants to reproduce and expand their populations. After the plant numbers move out of the threatened range, it then evaluates whether to proceed with horticultural use. A researcher at the Endemic Species Research Institute said: "Being assigned Poaceae makes horticultural use very difficult, because most of them look just like weeds."

Regarding operational difficulties, the Endemic Species Research Institute mentioned that Poaceae seeds are not easy to preserve and need frequent renewal, so it cannot be completed with a single collection. In addition, mosses also need to be preserved, but because they have no vascular bundles, they were not included in the Red List. Still, it is necessary to go to high mountains to collect as much as possible, because if collection were done only after being listed in the Red List, some threatened varieties might go extinct before being listed.

Is horticultural use possible? Dong Jing-sheng: detailed species preservation planning is needed

After threatened plants are restored, is there a chance they could be horticulturalized, and is it also possible for them to enter ordinary people's courtyards or flower beds? In response, Dong Jing-sheng, section chief of the botanical gardens at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, who is implementing this program, said: "There is a chance, so current species preservation planning must have more detailed considerations."

Dong Jing-sheng explained that before rare plants are horticulturalized, if there is no supporting plan, overcollection may occur because of high market value, leading to even fewer populations. Dong Jing-sheng explained that what the world currently values is how to get local residents involved in conservation, and two things must be considered: first, the provenance must not be confused; second, whether local residents can carry out regional promotion.

Provenance must not be confused, meaning the genes of local endemic species must not spread to more distant areas. For example, genes from the north must not go to the south, especially since selecting and breeding excellent varieties for horticultural promotion can lead to narrowing of native species genes. In addition, suitable site and suitable species must be considered; it does not necessarily mean a residence can create a growing environment that suits rare plants.

As for regional promotion by local residents, for example: academic institutions in Central and South America teach community women and children to grow and produce rare plants in order to improve community residents' lives. Therefore, the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute does not want the country to be filled everywhere with "plant hunters" (people who collect rare plants). Dong Jing-sheng said that ideally, communities or schools, under government departmental integration, comply with certain ethical norms and, after collection, carry out promotion in the name of the community or school.

Farmland is habitat; today's threatened plants may be tomorrow's cash crops

Chen Chi-chung, minister of the Council of Agriculture, believes that agriculture and conservation are inseparable. In addition to playing the role of producing food, farmland is also plant habitat. Once habitat is destroyed and plant conservation is harmed, future food production on farmland will also be affected.

If the agricultural sector is to carry out plant conservation, the premise is that farmland must be used for agriculture. Taking rice as an example, besides serving as food, it can also conserve groundwater and serve as ecological habitat. Calculating only by the value of the crop produced would underestimate its importance. To implement agricultural use of farmland, payments for farmland actually used for agriculture may begin as early as next year.

In addition to farmland, Chen Chi-chung mentioned that the Forestry Bureau is currently implementing the National Land Green Network program to survey biodiversity on national land, and there will also be ecological payments in the future. At present, the leopard cat is the first to start, and afterward the survey results will be fully disclosed so that citizens know the value of biodiversity.

The National Development Council provided more than 400 million in funding for the Plant Ark program. Chen Chi-chung stressed that they will continue to seek funding because there are many items of expenditure in implementation. For example, species outside protected areas, if on private land, require incentives to encourage landowners to cooperate, and the government's budget allocation depends on public attention. He called on citizens concerned about plant conservation to get more people to pay attention together.