[PCA] NEWS: Putting plants online: Four leading botanical gardens to create first online catalog of all plants

[Olivia Kwong]

http://phys.org/news/2012-04-online-botanical-gardens.html

Putting plants online: Four leading botanical gardens to create first 
online catalog of all plants
April 23, 2012

The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG); the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG); 
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew); and the Royal Botanic Garden 
Edinburgh (RBGE) have announced plans to develop the World Flora.the first 
modern, online catalog of the world's plants.by the year 2020. This 
massive undertaking will include the compilation of information on up to 
400,000 plant species worldwide. It will also achieve a primary target of 
the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, an ambitious effort first 
adopted by the United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity in 2002, 
to halt the continuing loss of plant biodiversity around the globe. 
Representatives of the four botanical gardens recently met to organize a 
framework to guide their efforts and respond to this need for a baseline 
survey of the plants of the world that has been called for by the 
international community. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) detailing 
plans to create the World Flora was recently signed into effect by the 
four institutions.

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