Ethics and Best Practices for Plant Conservation in Botanical Gardens

Joyce Maschinski, San Diego Zoo Global and Center for Plant Conservation (SePPCon 2016)

Joyce reviews the ethical considerations guiding our plant conservation professional conduct. Within the CPC, we have found that some actions are widely accepted standards, while others are context-specific and debated. CPC advises that practitioners are mindful of their institutional codes in collection policies or elsewhere. Standards include do no harm, get permission from landowners and agencies, know how to identify the species, and evaluate potential pest, pathogen or invasive behavior of the target species.  Guidelines for the amount to collect, documentation of collection, the kind of material you will be able to collect and conserve, as well as, what can be done with the material is discussed.  For further guidance, Joyce recommends reading CPC publications.

This work was presented at the Southeast Partners in Plant Conservation (SePPCon) 2016 Meeting. Learn more about SePPCon here.