APPENDIX 3
Letter to the Clerk of the Committee from
the Botanic Garden Education Network (BGEN)
I am submitting these comments for the Committee
in my capacity as both a member (and past Chair) of the committee
of the Botanic Garden Education Network (BGEN) and the Director
of a Botanic Garden that is active in the area of environmental
and conservation education for people of all ages including pupils
from primary and secondary schools plus University, College and
Life-Long-Learning students.
There is a fundamental need for everyone to
be aware of not only the need for us to live within our biological
resources but also the means by which we can live within our biological
resources. Botanic Gardens began this work before the ratification
of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 and will
make a significant contribution to the UK response to the targets
set by the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) adopted
last year by the 6th Conference of the Parties to the CBD.
This work by botanic gardens reaches far beyond
the confines of the formal education system. Every garden is trying
to ensure that every visitor is made aware of the current crisis
in conservation and how we as individuals can and should help
to prevent the demise of the plant, animal and fungal species
upon which our lives depend. This work, that directly supports
the UK Government's CBD commitments, is not funded by the Government—with
the exception of the Royal Botanic Gardens in London and Edinburgh.
Every other botanic garden, whether funded by a Local Authority,
private Charity or a University, has to raise extra funding for
educational staff because environmental education is only a part
of the core funding of the newest gardens such as the National
Botanic Garden for Wales. In effect non-Governmental organisations
have assumed responsibility for educating the Nation about the
need for sustainable living in the absence of adequate resource
allocation from the Government.
DEFRA is supporting the current creation of
the UK response to the GSPC and this current inquiry should ensure
that all Government Departments work to create the capacity in
the UK education system to deliver the targets of the Strategy.
If the Government fails the Nation at this time it will be seen,
in the decades to come, to have promoted biological decadence
and to have behaved as an ancestor indifferent to the needs of
future generations.
February 2003
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