Blog

Principle No. 2 - Local People must have ownership of conservation programmes

Any one who has planted a tree will know that there is an invisible but unbreakable bond between you and that tree forever.  I have returned after many years to gardens where I have worked in the past to see how trees I have planted are growing.  Furthermore there is an oak tree in my old Mother’s garden that first appeared from a buried acorn in the same year that I was born.  It is doing much better than I am.  

This powerful connection that we have with the local biological diversity is a crucial component of conservation.  The memories of flowers seen as you walk to primary school stay with you for the rest of your life.  Thus when there is an appeal for money to buy land for conservation in the UK, the money appears very quickly.  However, there are reciprocal examples from around the world where rich foreign benefactors, for all the right reasons, have purchased land only to find that the indigenous people do not appreciate being forced to put that land into conservation programmes.

Where conservation works best, the local people have been involved.  There are examples of this from all over.  In Madagascar, school children have been involved in orchid conservation; Madagascar is home to one thousand species of orchids most of which are found nowhere else on Earth.  In Borneo, the local people who have the right to extract sustainable quantities of forest products have passionately protected forests.

We should never underestimate the strength of the bond between humans and their local species just as gardeners cherish their garden plants.

To read more about gardening and horticulture, take a look at our great range of eBooks, including:

Getting Work in Horticulture

Garden Design Part 1

Succulents

 

... and many more, view our whole range of eBooks here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are looking to study, why not take a look at the range of online and Elearning courses available at acsedu.co.uk, with courses including

Horticulture

Science