3rd Global Botanic Gardens Congress

Yesterday we left our tour guide, Katy, and flew to Wuhan. Our plane was a little late, so we missed the opening ceremony at the Wuhan Botanical Garden. We'll be back there on Wednesday, though. I'm staying at the hotel right across the street from the conference.

This morning's opening comments were inspiring to say the least! There are dozens of journalists covering this event. When we arrived there was even a red carpet. It is hard for me to describe in this blog the energy and excitement here. There are people here from all over the world. Joan Walmsley, the Chair of the BGCI Board gave the most exciting opening speech. She reminded everyone in the room that the world's greatest challenge right now is our own making. The rate of plant, animal and clean water destruction is our own doing. Our future wars will not be about land or religion, but rather about water. She told us all in the room that because politicians are solely focused on reducing emissions, and not understanding the fragility of ecosystems the way botanists, conservationists and horticulturists do, that we must all become politicians. We must devote our time and work in influencing the government officials around the world about the true meaning of conservation and sustainability. How exciting! I couldn't believe I was in the same room with all of these people. She announced the possibility for the next Conference in 2010 to be in Dublin, Ireland. Although she said this isn't finalized and that other countries should discuss and submit their application. Philadelphia anyone???!!! She also announced the opening of a BGCI office in China. The details haven't been worked out, but this was really exciting news.

After the opening remarks I met an American who commented on how lucky I was to be here at such a young age. I'm definitely one of the youngest people here! He said he'd wished he had the opportunity to go to something like this 23 years ago when he first started his career in horticulture. He is headed on a plant exploration trip in Southern China after the conference. There are just so many interesting and exciting people here!

I met up with Claire and she introduced me to Kang! Many of you may remember him from his time at the Scott Arboretum. He showed us pictures of his new baby. He seems like a wonderful person and I'm looking forward to spending more time with him this week.

This afternoon's topics were about various networks of botanic gardens around the world and their history. Steven Clemants from BBG also spoke about The North American Botanical Garden Strategy for Plant Conservation and its role in conserving plant diversity. We will get a copy of this tomorrow at the North American regional meeting. I also met David Galbraith, who is the chair for the North American Partnership for Plant Conservation. He works a the Royal Botanic Gardens in Hamilton, Canada. We learned about various plant networks globally, including two in both South East Asia (SEABG) and East Asia.

After break I attended a workshop on managing living collections for conservation using technology. Several great speakers talked about databases and collaborations around the world. Mike O'Neal and Kerry Walter from BG-Base spoke about their tool. David Aplin of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium spoke to us about the use of bar codes in his garden. He encouraged us all to implement this technology in our gardens to ensure quick and accurate data collection and retrieval. Exciting!

Tonight: dinner in Wuhan with Kang! Today was a wonderful start to the Congress.