PlantNetwork's Target 8 project: the survey stages

The aim of PlantNetwork’s Target 8 project is to involve botanic and other collections-led gardensthroughout Britain (and eventually Ireland also) to cultivate nationally threatened vascular plantspecies. In this way, if each garden were to ‘adopt’ 2–3 threatened species then the networkof British botanic gardens could collectively cultivate almost all of the 204 threatened speciesfound in Britain, and therefore fulfill the requirements of Target 8 of the Global Strategy for PlantConservation. However, before such a project could start, baseline information on the number anddiversity of threatened plants in British ex situ collections was required. Along with this, speciesdossiers compiling cultivation and conservation details were considered necessary for the successof the project. Furthermore, practical details of the project such as collection and representationneeded to be discussed with curators. This paper describes the background, survey work andpractical aspects of the project.