The first meeting of the Consortium for the World Flora Online was held at RBGE on the 14th and 15th November 2013. This is the latest in a series of international meetings of botanic gardens and botanical research institutions committed to developing a World Flora Online (WFO) by 2020 – meeting Target 1 of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.
In early 2012 Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG), the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew), the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) and the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) signed a Memorandum of Understanding detailing their intent to work together to spearhead the development of a World Flora Online. The WFO partnership now includes 20 botanical institutions worldwide, and the consortium continues to grow.
The World Flora Online project is a massive undertaking which will include the compilation of information on up to 400,000 plant species worldwide. The WFO will support conservation and sustainable management of the world’s plant resources, and has been endorsed in 2013 at the 11th Convention of the Parties of the CBD, in Hyderabad.
Attendees:
- Song Ge – Beijing Chinese Academy of Sciences – Institute of Botany, People’s Republic of China
- Walter Berendsohn – Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Zentraleinrichtung der Freien Universität Berlin, Germany
- Pierre-Andre Loizeau – Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève, Switzerland
- Leng Guan Saw – Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Malaysia
- Eduardo Dalcin – Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Jan Kirschner – Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences Czech Republic, Czech Republic
- David Bramwell – Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo, Spain
- De-Zhu Li – Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, People’s Republic of China
- Steve Kappel – Missouri Botanical Garden, USA
- Bob Magill – Missouri Botanical Garden, USA
- Chuck Miller – Missouri Botanical Garden, USA
- Peter Wyse Jackson – Missouri Botanical Garden, USA
- William Ulate – Missouri Botanical Garden, USA
- Maite Delmas – Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France
- Gwenael Le Bras – Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France
- Jim Miller – New York Botanical Garden, USA
- Wayt Thomas – New York Botanical Garden, USA
- Melissa Tulig – New York Botanical Garden, USA
- Stephen Blackmore – Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK
- Mark Watson – Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK
- Peter Hollingsworth – Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK
- Colin Pendry – Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK
- Bob Alkin – Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK
- Alan Paton – Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK
- David Simpson – Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK
- Paul Wilkin – Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK
- Nicola Nicolson – Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK
- Gideon Smith – South African National Biodiversity Institute, South Africa
- M. Marianne le Roux – South African National Biodiversity Institute, South Africa