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Botanical Bridges Congress, November 2022

Thrity was invited by the directors of the Botanical Gardens Conservation International, and Naples Botanical Garden, to the Botanical Bridges Congress 2022, at The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve, a 30 acre world-class, botanic garden in Governor’s Harbor Eleuthera Island, Bahamas. It is a showcase of native and endemic Bahamian plants and is the first and only national park on the island. Thrity’s presentation at the congress highlighted the history and forestry work at Las Casas, including the last two years of work with critically endangered endemic species. There were 50 participants from 26 Botanical Gardens and institutions, representing 11 countries and territories, a gathering to improve global collaboration.

Here is 3t’s photo album of the trip: https://photos.app.goo.gl/JGPBqnmxetVGTKECA

Huge thanks to Joachim Gratzfeld, BGCI Regional Programmes Director; Chad Washburn, Director, Naples Botanical Garden, Florida; Noelia Alvarez, BGCI Plant Conservation Project Manager, for arranging and sponsoring Thrity’s trip.

Outcomes and Emerging Themes
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­There were many important outcomes and emerging themes at the Congress including: Revision and acceptance of a draft of A Plant Conservation Strategy for the Caribbean Region.  The strategy provides a unifying set of plant conservation actions linked to and in support of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. The Strategy will be circulated among the Network in early 2023 for a final stakeholder consultation. 

A range of tools and resources are available through Botanic Gardens Conservation International to support and guide plant conservation efforts, including the International Plant Sentinel Network, Global Conservation Consortia, Global Tree Assessments, Plant Search, Threat Search, and the Global Tree Portal.

There is a significant need to draw in more participation from Caribbean and Central American gardens and plant conservation organizations to build a stronger network. This will require improved communication, engagement, and promotion of the network.

Botanic Gardens across the region are acting as education, training, and sustainability centers to build regional capacity to support plant conservation. Projects that focus on taxonomic groups can serve as successful models for collaboration and creating coordinated metacollections of high conservation value. Collaborations within the region and outside of the region will be necessary to build significant capacity for plant conservation. This includes collaborations between gardens and governments, businesses and entrepreneurships, schools and universities, and local communities. 
Conservation horticulture plays a vital role in supporting all plant conservation efforts.

Climate change impacts play a strong role in the region. Work is needed to plan for disaster management and to prepare, mitigate and restore in the face of climate change.
META ABSTRACT: TREE CONSERVATION SESSIONS
Prioritise, plan, act and monitor – promoting an integrated approach to threatened tree conservation

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) promotes a holistic, integrated approach to the conservation and management of plant diversity. The ultimate aim of BGCI’s Tree Conservation Program is that no tree species become extinct. A coordinated, integrated approach to global tree conservation is needed, as the State of the World’s Trees, published in 2021 indicates that almost 30% of all tree species are threatened with extinction. BGCI’s Tree Conservation Program is integrating threatened tree conservation through four actions – prioritise, plan, act and monitor – to protect the world’s tree species from extinction with partners worldwide. In this session, we will showcase the varied approaches used to further the conservation of tree species.

PRIORITISE

Effective tree conservation requires information and tools to guide and prioritise action. The Global Tree Assessment is an initiative to assess the conservation status of all the world’s tree species, led by Botanic Gardens Conservation International and the IUCN Species Survival Commission Global Tree Specialist Group. Here we present the progress of the Global Tree Assessment towards our goal of an IUCN Red List assessment for every tree species with a focus on Central America and the Caribbean. However completing IUCN Red List assessments isn’t enough. Tree extinctions can only be avoided if the best possible information is available and then used to inform conservation decisions made by practitioners, policy makers and funders.

PLAN

Conservation action can be planned at species level but also at the national, regional and taxonomic group levels. All together, resources as made available by BGCI including the Global Tree Portal, Conservation Action Tracker, Recovery Plans, national conservation planning work and taxonomic group-level conservation planning, inform the selection of priority sites and species to develop integrated tree conservation initiatives and funding applications. Ground surveys are  key to updating the information on baseline populations and understanding of threats and ecology for the species to enable the development of recovery plans.

ACT

The information available through the Global Tree Assessment is crucial to guide tree conservation action. While the challenges and scale of the problem in maintaining tree diversity are significant, the Global Trees Campaign initiative has worked to conserve over 400 threatened tree species in more than 50 countries. These projects carry out direct tree conservation action, collaborating closely with local partners worldwide. The full engagement and participation of local stakeholders is key to the success and lasting impact of all tree conservation initiatives. Technical challenges can be multiple and complex, building stakeholder capacity and partnerships facilitates the sharing of experiences, improves practices and increases success. We will showcase examples of tree conservation projects currently being implemented in the  Central American and Caribbean region in countries such as the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti and Puerto Rico.

MONITOR

Project monitoring is the routine collection and analysis of information about project progress and whether expected results are being achieved. To track progress annually, BGCI has developed a thorough system of monitoring and evaluation where project activities are reviewed and amended  as necessary,  based on new findings or on unforeseen events, including natural and man-made hazards and changes.

An example of integrated conservation encompassing the Prioritise-Plan-Act-Monitor framework are the Global Conservation Consortia. The global botanic garden community is establishing a series of consortia of specialists with knowledge of genera that are technically challenging to conserve and manage. Eight such consortia have been established to date, including for cycads, and Magnolia. The Global Conservation Consortium for Magnolia (GCCM), led by Atlanta Botanical Garden, is a coordinated network of institutions and experts who work collaboratively to develop and implement a comprehensive conservation strategy to prevent extinction of the world’s Magnolia species.

Collaboration is needed to most effectively conserve the world’s tree species. Strengthening the networks already in place, sharing of  information and experiences and developing new partnerships is key to protecting the region’s unique tree flora.

Hurricaen Fiona 2022

Hurricane Fiona

Devastating landslides at Las Casas de la Selva.

17th to 18th September 2022, Hurricane Fiona passed over Puerto Rico, and Patillas received 27″ of rain. Landslides were the major events at the project, and we also lost our forest bridge that leads into our plantations. The force of the water was extremely high and violent, as we have seen all over PR after Fiona.  We have also lost access to our plantations from the Las Mulas side as the municipal road suffered a huge landslide.

It has been a devastating event. The main drive suffered two land slides, the vegetation was cleared in the week following the hurricane by a volunteer Team Echo, then work with a tractor by Andres Rua, then finally the Patillas municipal bulldozer. Thrity was trapped for four days. The electric line is also down, so the generator is on for maybe the next two months. Thrity is working with volunteers to clean up, Andres is working on the water system, and the future looks towards ecological restoration being a major part of what we do.

Thank you to everyone who has reached out to help, and a huge thank you to those that have come and given a hand at a very challenging time.

Please help in whatever way you can.

https://eyeontherainforest.org/donate/

Links to Press Reports & Other publications
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/09/puerto-rico-crippled-by-flash-flooding-and-power-failures-as-fiona-heads-toward-bermuda/
https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/fiona-rainfall-totals-in-puerto-rico-rival-hurricane-marias-downpours/1249695
https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2020/1022/ofr20201022_sheet_geospatial.pdf

Volunteers on Team Echo working on clearing vegetation off landslide.
Bridge broken by Hurricane Fiona
Andres clearing landslide on main drive.
Andres fixing the generator
L-R: Brent Foley, Sarah Clayton, Michael, Berto Cartenega, Justin Breen, Bernie War, all volunteering to help with clearing landslides and standing up fallen trees.
Alfredo Lopez helping with Mahogany saplings impacted by debris.
Thank you to Andres and Potin for working tirelessly on the water system, and to Angel Collazo, (center), for moral support!!

See the images of landslides on PR 184 near Las Casas de la Selva
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFOd6RTGH8/oi8KFQMX_CqqOrv4CH71Jw/view?utm_content=DAFOd6RTGH8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Hartford High, Vermont – April 2022

Students and staff from Hartford High School, Vermont were in the house for several days, whilst we had an island-wide blackout. We worked on the ethnobotanical trail where a landslide had erased much of the path, and created a new trail. Old eroded steps on the trail were renewed and undergrowth was cleared for more tree-planting. Thanks to staff Doug Anton, Israel Provoncha, and Tricia Pfeiffer for great leadership, and to Vamanos Tours for safe travel and island organizing! Monica Nieves and Vanessa Acevedo worked the kitchen and dining, and we were delighted by the fine cuisine.

Democracy Prep Schools, New York, April 2022

A – Democracy Prep Charter High School – New York, NY
B – Democracy Prep Harlem High School – Harlem, NY
C – Democracy Prep Harlem Prep High School – Harlem, NY
D – Democracy Prep Bronx Prep High School – Bronx, NY
E – Democracy Prep Endurance High School – New York, NY

Democracy Prep Public Schools is a growing network of free, open-enrollment, high-performing public charter schools committed to preparing students for success in college and active citizenship. These five teams of New York teens came to participate at Las Casas de la Selva, Sustainable Forestry Project, Patillas, and worked outside in heavy rains and muddy conditions, helping with clearing overgrowth, clearing an area for more tree sapling storage under shade, digging holes for tree planting, and cleaning up various nursery areas. Comfort zones were broken down swiftly, but happy to report big smiles all around. We had a great time with these young students who are all on their way to great achievements. We salute you all. Thanks also to the staff who brought each team and Vamanos Tours for getting them all in and out safely. Thanks to Monique Nieves and Vanessa Acevedo for the delicious cuisine.

Lawrence Academy Groton, MA March 2022

Mercury, a visiting artist from New York, and 3t, worked with students out in the forest on the ethnobotanical trail. The students were lucky to get some presentations from project volunteers George Locascio, a butterfly expert who teaches at Mount Wachusett Community College, and Brian Connolly, a botanist who is a professor at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Lawrence Academy team 12th- 14th March 2022. Thank you!
Lawrence Academy team 11-12th March 2022. Thank you!!

Fountain Valley High School, CO March 2022

The New School of the Anthropocene Symposium

The New School of the Anthropocene Symposium is an ongoing series of unscripted video dialogues launched to coincide with the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) held in Glasgow in Autumn 2021.
The framework for discussion is bio-political emergency: a question of unimaginable climate catastrophe, species extinction and the undermining of the very notion of civil society and its reciprocal practices. This is our pivotal question:

How can the university be reshaped to address these issues in the context of its own accelerating crises of marketisation, instrumentalism and the systematic denigration of arts and humanities subjects?

The Symposium pairs leading cultural figures from neighbouring fields with the intention of allowing free-ranging conversation, which is loosely tied into the New School’s wider educational enquiry.

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