全 文 ：The Austrian Botanic Gardens Work Group, an Example of Active
Networking to Promote Small Botanic Gardens
Roland K. EBERWEIN*
(Regional Museum of Carinthia, Carinthian Botanic Center, Klagenfurt / Woerthersee, Austria)
Abstract: The continuously increasing demands on botanic gardens during the last few decades have led to a huge in
increase administration and an urgent need for additional specialized personnel, especially botanists, teachers, data鄄
base specialists and administrative staff. Instead of meeting these requirements, many botanic gardens are faceing a se鄄
vere decrease in funding and personnel. Larger gardens provide the opportunity to distribute several tasks to different
employees, whereas small gardens are short staffed and often run by a single curator who has to fulfill all functions. In
order to meet actual demands more easily, the Austrian botanic gardens are linked nationally via an active workgroup.
This network not only allows the distribution of information but also facilitates the sharing of duties. A listserver speeds
up the communication and correspondence within the workgroup, collection priorities and projects (e. g., GSPC) are
coordinated, seedbanking becomes decentralized, printed matters are shared and distributed, etc. Small gardens with
only few employees can participate in projects by taking on small-ideally using with their special resources-in order
not to fall behind. In addition, there is also an urgent need for international networking by means of plant and seed ex鄄
change (Index Seminum), BGCI membership, discussion groups, personal contacts and projects. Mission statements,
special marketing strategies for public relations, integrating projects of other workgroup members and adapted public
awareness programs are important to focus attention to small gardens and to help them keep alive.
Key words: Active networking; Small botanic gardens; Implementing of standards; Task sharing; Mission statement
CLC number: Q 94-339摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 Document Code: A摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 Article ID: 2095-0845(2011)01-075-05
Intrduction
Modern botanic gardens are institutions with
missions far from pure gardening and landscape archi鄄
tecture. Regardless of size, wether the garden is
linked to a university or a museum, if it is a histori鄄
cal or a modern garden, or is small or large, a con鄄
tinually increasing bundle of jobs has to be worked
off. These additional jobs enclose a wide range from
scientific research (Bramwell and Kiehn, 2000; Kie鄄
hn, 2008b), transmission of knowledge for all age
groups and all levels of education, events s. latiss.,
nature conservation, databasing etc. and finally to
modern management (also see Cheney et al., 2000).
These different jobs need specialized and well educat鄄
ed employees and the corresponding resources. In
times of decreasing resources, the ‘BG鄄paradoxon爷
occurs: the less funds the more tasks. While larger
gardens are able to lighten this situation temporarily
by a new arrangement of tasks, small gardens with
only few employees are on the ropes very fast (Eber鄄
wein, 2004a, c). New approaches to protect small
gardens and their huge diversity are quickly required.
The small (1.2 hm2) botanic garden of the Carin鄄
thian Botanic Center (KL) in Klagenfurt (Austria)
acts as a model to demonstrate the following strategic
considerations. A short glimpse at the central mis鄄
sions of this garden shows a huge variability of differ鄄
ent tasks ( also see Bramwell and Kiehn, 2000;
Wyse Jackson and Sutherland, 2000; Funk, 2003;
Eberwein, 2004a; Kiehn et al., 2006):
植 物 分 类 与 资 源 学 报摇 2011, 33 (1): 75 ~ 79
Plant Diversity and Resources摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 摇 DOI: 10. 3724 / SP. J. 1143. 2011. 10234
* Author for correspondence; E鄄mail: roland. eberwein@ landesmuseum. ktn. gv. at
Address: Prof. 鄄Dr. 鄄Kahler鄄Platz 1, A鄄9020 Klagenfurt / Woerthersee, Austria
Received date: 2010-12-10, Accepted date: 2010-12-25
摇 摇 Resource for scientific research (systematics, taxonomy, morphology, anatomy)
Reference material for determination of plants
Botanical background for field studies (e. g. , ecology)
Maintenance culture (nature conservation, protection of species)
Horticultural research
Horticultural training
Preservation of genetic resources (living plants, seed bank)
Exchange of genetic resources (international seed exchange, Index Seminum)
Listing of locality or habitat data of wild plants
Research on wild plants, their protection and management (ex situ and in situ)
Integrated plant protection
Ethnobotanical research
Preservation of cultivated species
Information about toxic and medicinal plants including reference material
Drug prevention and information about drug plants
Pollution monitoring
Recolonization of endangered species
Urban and landscape planning
Teacher忆s training
Information centre for horticultural and botanical questions
Guided tours for children, pupils, adults, and seniors
Integration of handicapped persons (special adaptations for the blind in the Botanic Garden Klagenfurt)
Tourism
Recreation area for the people
National education
Resource (collection of material) for exhibitions
Teaching material for schools
摇 Taking into account that this institution employs
only five gardeners, one garden assistant, and a half
time curator it is evident that this garden has- like
other small botanic gardens-severe problems to hold
itself up. In addition, the modern botanic garden
has to use national as well as international standards
in several fields of activity. As an example, educa鄄
tional programs must be in congruence with national
laws and norms of teaching (Eberwein, 2004b, d,
2007, 2008; Doralt, 2010).
Rising awareness of protecting plant life led to
another example: several important regulations with
national and international consequences for botanic
gardens. For instance, the Convention on Interna鄄
tional Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora ( CITES), the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) with the subsequent Global Strate鄄
gy for Plant Conservation ( GSPC ), the Global
Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Inter鄄
national Plant Exchange Network ( IPEN), and in鄄
ternational as well as national laws for protecting na鄄
ture (Table 1). These conventions and laws set off
a huge avalanche of challenges for botanic gardens
like administration of CITES, administration of seed
and plant exchange with international accession num鄄
bers, databasing by using international standards,
special programs for plant conservation ( in situ and
ex situ), seedbanking, administration of collecting
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Table 1摇 Important regulations with national and international consequences for botanic gardens concerning plant life protection
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) http: / / www. cites. org /
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC)
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
International Plant Exchange Network (IPEN)
http: / / www. cbd. int /
http: / / www. cbd. int / gspc /
http: / / www. gbif. org /
http: / / www. bgci. org / resources / ipen /
Laws for protecting nature
National laws
International laws (e. g. , FFH鄄Council Directive 92 / 43 / EEC on the Conservation of
natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora [European Union])
http:/ / eur鄄lex. europa. eu / LexUriServ / site / de /
consleg / 1992 / L / 01992L0043鄄20070101鄄de. pdf
permits and phytosanitary certificates, imparting of
botanical, regulating and administrative facts and
knowledge to the public as well as to scientists, or
problems with invasive neophytes (see Wyse Jackson
and Sutherland, 2000; Lobin et al., 2004; Kiehn,
2007; Sieder et al., 2007; Kiehn, 2008a,b; Kiehn
et al., 2009; Eberwein, 2010; Eberwein and Berg,
2010; Eberwein et al., 2010). Managing only the
core administration of the examples above is a heavy
challenge.
Small gardens are short staffed and often run by
a single curator who has to fulfill all functions. It is
easy to imagine that it is simply impossible for a sin鄄
gle person to manage all these jobs simultaneously.
Generally, botanic gardens urgently need additional
personnel: botanists, teachers, database specialists
and administrative staff. Instead of meeting these re鄄
quirements, many botanic gardens have to face a se鄄
vere decrease in funding and personnel.
The rising demands on botanic gardens and a lot
of common goals led to the foundation of the Austrian
Botanic Gardens Work Group in 1998 (Kiehn et al.,
2007). The main targets of the work group are:
摇 摇 Creation of a communication platform
Annual meetings
Joint representation of the Austrian Botanic Gardens
Planning and coordination of common duties
Lobbying
Resource sharing
Networking
摇 摇 The latter target became more and more impor鄄
tant during the last years. The concentration of bota鄄
nic gardens, resources and information in the capital
of Austria, Vienna, led to imbalances between the
focus in Vienna and the province鄄gardens. It was
necessary to change networking from a Vienna鄄cen鄄
tered service network to a more decentralized active
network in order to better incorporate province鄄gar鄄
dens, to meet current tasks and to promote these
gardens. According to individual ressources and spe鄄
cialities of province鄄gardens, they take over common
tasks or play an active role in projects or programs.
Relations of some examples are shown in Fig. 1.
These are in detail: Projects, memberships and dis鄄
tribution of information which is shortly described
below.
Within the framework of the Global Strategy for
Plant Conservation (GSPC) a compilation of red list
plants in Austrian botanic gardens was made by the
Botanic Garden of the University of Vienna (WU).
Only this major garden was able to carry out this pro鄄
ject. WU sent an employee to all gardens to collect
data which could not be assembled by them. The red
list plants project would not be possible without a
WU鄄centered organization. Another project, the Or鄄
chids of Madagascar, is a joint venture of WU and
the University of Salzburg ( SZU) ( Kiehn, 2007;
Sieder et al., 2007). The Botanic Garden of the Uni鄄
versity of Innsbruck (IB) organized an international
project funded by the European Union with the topic
‘education and botanic gardens爷. Austrian Partners
in this project were the botanic gardens in Klagenfurt
(KL) and Vienna (WU). Although Klagenfurt is
setting many initiatives in education ( Eberwein,
2004b, d, 2007, 2008), this small garden has not
771 期摇 摇 Roland K. EBERWEIN: The Austrian Botanic Gardens Work Group, an Example of Active Networking . . . 摇 摇
Fig. 1摇 Schematic graph of some relations between Austrian botanic gardens and IPEN and BGCI
enough capacity to conduct an international project.
The same is true for seedbanking ( Kiehn et al.,
2009). The main focus is on central seedbanks in
Vienna ( University of Natural Resources and Life
Sciences BOKU and WU) and two decentralized
seedbanks at the University of Graz (GZU) and the
Botanic Garden Klagenfurt (KL). Klagenfurt鄄in co鄄
operation with Vienna (WU) and Graz (GZU)鄄took
over the publication initiative concerning neophytes
in botanic gardens ( Kiehn, 2008a; Eberwein and
Berg, 2010; Eberwein et al., 2010). A decentral鄄
ized listserver was installed at the University of Graz
(GZU) to supply all member gardens with informa鄄
tions faster. International memberships play a very
important role. For instance, the International Plant
Exchange Network IPEN (Lobin et al., 2004) con鄄
siderably increased the quality of Indices Seminum.
Current Austrian members of IPEN are BOKU, GZU,
IB, KL, LI, SZU, and WU. Unfortunately only four
Austrian gardens are members of Botanic Gardens
Conservation International BGCI (IB, KL, WU, W鄄
PHARM). International sharing of information and e鄄
valuation is absolutely necessary. A BGCI member鄄
ship is therefore strongly recommended. The Austrian
Botanic Gardens Work Group doesn忆t act as a super鄄
visory authority, but as a kind of ‘superorganism爷.
An active network can help sharing information
and tasks, integrating small or less funded gardens
into national or international programs and therefore
bring them into the focus of attention in order to
hopefully prevent them from further withdrawal of
funding or closure.
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971 期摇 摇 Roland K. EBERWEIN: The Austrian Botanic Gardens Work Group, an Example of Active Networking . . . 摇 摇