Encyclopedia of Life coming to life

Suzanne Sharrock, BGCI's director of global programmes, went to an interesting meeting last week in Washington, US. BGCI is a member of the institutional council of a new, very ambitious, project called the Encyclopedia of Life. They are aiming, in association with a huge number of museums, experts, databases etc (including Wikipedia) to create a comprehensive database of every species on the face of the planet.

They say "the Encyclopedia will serve as an online reference source and database for every one of the 1.8 million species that are named and known on this planet, as well as all those later discovered and described. Encyclopedia of Life will be used as both a teaching and a learning tool, helping scientists, educators, students, and the community at large gain a better understanding of this planet and all who inhabit it."

They estimate that the initial sections (I think they are starting with fish) will be available in 2008, and the whole thing will be ready in ten years. It looks like an awesome project - they have a good Q and A section if, like me, you are wondering how on earth they are going to get so many groups to share their carefully gathered and hoarded data for no money. There are also some demonstration pages - I like the way you can select what level of user you are, i.e. novice to expert. They are planning to include a huge amount of data - it sounds really exciting and was inspired by the king of biodiversity, EO Wilson.

Do have a look at the video they have produced -it is really good.

Before waxing too lyrical about it, I do wonder about a couple of points...

- why is so much money being invested in a database when the species being listed are disappearing at such a fast rate?

- would the money have been put to better use carrying out conservation on the ground in some of the most biodiverse regions of the world?

- is yet another database of diversity(e.g. Wikispecies, Species2000) needed?

It would be very interesting to hear your views on this - have a look at it and let us know what you think.....

Climate Change on the Living Earth

Professor James Lovelock introduced us to the Gaia hypothesis back in the 1960s, where he postulated that the Earth functions as a kind of superorganism. Almost 50 years on, this extraordinary octogenarian is still making waves - and big ones at that! A thought provoking and terrifying lecture he gave to the Royal Society in October has recently been posted on the Society's website.

Professor Lovelock claims that the International Panel on Climate Change has considerably underestimated the rate at which Climate Change is taking place and talks about the devastating impact it will have on natural systems. He takes an apocalyptic view of the future seeing up to eight billions of humans faced with ever diminishing supplies of food and water in an increasingly intolerable climate. As you can imagine, most people left the lecture dumb struck!

Nevertheless, I believe we can't and musn't give up! Even if there's is nothing we can do to stop the earth warming because of the carbon already deposited (and continuing to be deposited) into the atmosphere, we still need to adapt our lifestyles to be more in tune with the earth. This of course requires a fundamental shift in the way we think about and relate to the planet - we have to see ourselves as part of it, not separate to it - which brings us back to Gaia.

Plans for the future

As I rushed for my connecting flight in Copenhagen, somehow I knew my luggage wouldn’t make it. Unfortunately, I was right and arrived in Riga at 10.30pm with just my handbag. Thankfully I’d packed my presentation for the next day. I was in Riga at the invitation of the University of Latvia to present about the role of botanic gardens in education and future trends. The University wants to revive its botanic garden and as a first step decided to hold an architectural competition. Five teams of architects from five countries traveled to Riga to participate in a four day workshop. It was a fascinating process.

The first day was the competition brief which involved presentations from a range of stakeholders and two visiting ‘experts’, Leif Schulman, Director of the Helsinki Botanic Garden and me. My job had been made much easier thanks to the input of several colleagues working in botanic gardens who sent me really useful information and images about their education spaces (thanks Michael, Jacky, Jeri, Shawn and Trevor!). During the afternoon we were taken on a tour of Riga city, the largest city in the Baltic States. The city is absolutely beautiful and certainly deserves to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Then on to the botanic garden which is situated on the left hand side of the river Daugava, a short bus ride away from the centre. The 15 hectare botanic garden has enormous potential. Its main collections consist of azaleas, rhododendrons, magnolias, dahlias, roses, apricots and peaches and hardy perennials. The displays of flowers were lovely and clearly the population of Riga enjoys visiting the garden.

That evening I found time to interview Anta (Director) and Signe (Deputy Director) of the garden. You can see the video on BGCI's website.

An open forum was held during the second day of the competition for the architectural teams to ask questions of the stakeholders and visiting ‘experts’. I was amazed at how few questions were asked, but as someone pointed out to me the architects probably didn’t want to give away their ideas! The final few days the teams were busy working on their concepts and designs. Unfortunately I had to leave on the Friday evening, so I’m still waiting to hear about the winning designs.

Reflecting on the process, I thought it was fascinating. However, I came away concerned that the vision of the garden was being left in the hands of the architects rather than being articulated by the staff of the garden. Perhaps this will come later, but I feel that if the garden has a strong conservation mission then this will drive the design. For example, I was very interested to find out that the Faculty of Biology at the University is involved in a European project to protect and manage the coastal habitats in Latvia. During the Soviet era (1940-1991) access to the coastline was restricted and, as a consequence, the natural habitats have been inadvertently protected. Reading through the brochure that’s been produced on the project, there's no mention of ex situ conservation. The Botanic Garden, for example, would be an excellent place to carry out ex situ research on some of the plant species. I think it would be marvellous to re-create a dune ecosystem to raise awareness about the importance of this Latvian ecosystem and run education programmes on how the public can help protect it - especially as increasing numbers of the public will be visiting the coast over the years to come.

Reviewing and renewing - BGCI's US office

For the past few months, BGCI has been short of a team in the US, our wonderful colleagues moved to pastures new and the US project has been undergoing review. Rick Daley, ex-director of Denver Botanic Gardens and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and ex-BGCI US board of directors has been hard at work surveying our US members to find out what they want. Of course, it is always important to start any programme finding out what is actually needed, so it will be great for BGCI to use the results in developing the US project.

Of course, the US gang have produced loads of exciting resources, particularly for education, which we are reviewing and hope to work on. There is the Planet Plant website - for 8 -12 year olds, focusing on some of the charismatic flora of the US, curriculum materials for middle schools on plants and the Education e-update newsletter.

So far, we have been working with an on-line education network, called Grid Club, to develop Planet Plant into an international version. We have some plans through and will be looking for financial support. We are going to evaluate the curriculum materials (again, if we find the funds!), and make them accessible either to download or as hard copy (or both) for gardens to use and share with their local schools. Plus, we have given the Education e-update a bit of a make-over. Brian Johnson (used to be the US education officer, but now working hard on his PhD) is producing a monthly international Education e-update.

This electronic newsletter for garden educators is to share the latest in news and views from colleagues around the world, so make sure you subscribe, and view the latest issue on the BGCI website. Plus, we need your help - send us your news and we will include it in Education e-update.

The tale of a true hummingbird

Last night, BGCI hosted a talk by Professor Wangari Maathai, the women's rights campaigner, founder of the Green Belt Movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner - the first African woman to have been awarded this accolade. And well deserved this accolade is, she is an amazing woman, now in her late sixties, who inspired and motivated the audience at the Royal Geographical Society.

Professor Maathai is a consummate story-teller and throughout her speech I was amazed by the dedication and belief she has in the work she and her organisation are doing, the optimism she displays and the determination which has seen her through many difficult years as a woman's and environmental campaigner in Kenya.

She told us a story - a tale of a courageous hummingbird.

Watch the video on YouTube

The forest it lived in was burning down, the fire was raging through the trees and all the animals in the forest were fleeing for their lives. They stopped at the edge of the forest and watched their home being destroyed, crying and wailing about their misfortune. One tiny hummingbird saw what was happening to her home. So she went to a stream, collected a drop of water in her beak and carried it to the fire. Quick as she could she flew back to the stream and collected another drop, and took it to the fire, and another drop, and another. Quick as she could she collected water and took it to the fire.

The other animals watched her, and called to her 'Stop what you are doing, it is pointless, give up now, you will never be able to change anything, it is too late'. But she wouldn't listen, she kept on collecting drop after drop and taking her tiny amounts of water to the fire. Event eh elephants, with their big trunks, who could suck up a lot of water from the stream, said to her 'Stop this, there is no point, we are lost'. But she still wouldn't listen, and carried on zipping between the stream and the fire. A third time, the other animals watching said 'Don't continue, give up your work'. In between collecting drops of water she turned to them and said 'I may not be able to do very much, but I am trying my hardest - I am doing the very best that I can'.

Professor Maathai turned to the audience and addressed us all saying that we should also be like hummingbirds, it doesn't matter how small or insignificant we feel as individuals when thinking about environmental issues, we should just do the very best we can.

One of the campaigns the Green Belt Movement is involved with at the moment is the Billion Trees Campaign. Again, like the little hummingbird, the idea is that even if only 1 in 6 of us plants a tree, we can still between us all trying our best, plant a billion trees this year - thereby protecting watersheds, preserving soil and creating habitats for many different species.

So, go out today and plant a tree - just make sure you are doing the best you can!

Reasons to blog!

So, why exactly have the 'not so good at technology' education department decided to enter the weird and wonderful world of blogs? Well, from my own point of view, Sarah Dixon (BGCI's invaluable web editor) and I went to a training course by the brilliant Media Trust a couple of weeks ago that opened my eyes to the new communication tool that is 'New Media' - i.e. using blogs, Wikis (as in Wikipedia), Myspace, Podcasts and so on.

The Media Trust is a fab organisation - they are funded by the UK government and their remit is to provide training, expertise and resources to help charities use the media for their own benefit. They run training courses (very reasonably priced and sometimes free!), help locate media experts who will donate their time to work on a charity's particular media project, and will even take news, turn it into a press release and release it to the news feeds journalists use to locate stories. Have a look at their website to find out more.

Anyway, Paul Caplan, one of the tutors on this training day, was telling us about the possibilities of using new media - his point was that it opened the door to a totally different way of working. Rather than websites being places to get information from, a very didactic approach, we can use them to communicate, to create dialogue and conversation with individuals, sharing ideas and experiences in a much more open and democratic way. I'll write up some of the notes he gave us and put them on the website - of course I'll drop a blog in to say where they are. He also has articles available on the ICT Hub about new media and various other IT technologies.

In the meantime, the training session has directly led to this blog. Julia and I are always working on developing new projects and proposals and are always looking for input and ideas from our colleagues and friends - this blog, where anyone can leave a comment and contribute, ill hopefully provide us with a better way of communicating and learning from everyone.

We'll use it to share tidbits we pick up from various places, chat about ideas or suggestions, draw attention to new resources or outputs from BGCI and also to get to know the BGCI education website users a little better. So don't be shy - contribute, comment, get involved, we'd love to hear from you!