Botanical gardens (including arboreta) hold documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education. Their main tasks are ex situ conservation of plant diversity and realization of sustainable use of plant resources, and carrying out of relevant plant displays, public education and scientific investigations. Worldwide there are about 2 000 botanical gardens and arboreta of different types holding 80 000 plant taxa, including many rare and threatened plants. Chinese botanical gardens, currently about 160 in number, have made great progresses in plant introduction, acclimatization and domestication, utilization and commercial development, and conservation. Their important roles in public education and tourism are being recognized. Botanical garden workers have achieved innovative theoretical and technological results in their researches. The gardens are also coming into line with the world in management, policy making, training, and computerization of plant record system. We expect the Chinese botanical gardens to embrace the challenges and opportunities of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, achieve more in garden construction, science popularization and tourism, capacity building, and research, meet the demands of economic and social development and protection and rational use of the environment and resources, to go hand in hand with botanical gardens of the world.

botanical gardens  /  China  /  plant introduction  /  acclimatization and domestication  /  ex situ conservation  /  botanical diversity  /  plant resources  /  public education  /  tourism  /  sustainable development