The Experts below are selected from a list of 84531 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Charlie M Shackleton - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the use and appreciation of Botanical Gardens as urban green spaces in south africa
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2010Co-Authors: Catherine D Ward, Caitlin M Parker, Charlie M ShackletonAbstract:There are few formal studies on the contribution of Botanical Gardens as urban green spaces, particularly within developing countries. Therefore, this paper reports on an assessment of the use and appreciation of Botanical Gardens as urban green spaces in South Africa. Users and staff were surveyed in six national Botanical Gardens. The Gardens provided numerous benefits in terms of conservation, education and recreation. However, the people using the Gardens were not demographically representative of the general population of the surrounding city or town. Generally, most of the visitors were middle- to old-aged, well-educated professionals with medium to high incomes. Most were white and English was their home language. There was an even gender representation. Most visited only a few times per year. The majority of users visited the Gardens for recreation and psychological reasons rather than educational ones. However, the staff of each garden placed emphasis on education in the Gardens and amongst surrounding schools. Most visitors appreciated the conservation dimensions of Botanical Gardens, and felt that there was insufficient public green space in their town or city. Understanding how people perceive and use the Botanical Gardens of South Africa is important to inform future research and strategies regarding the conservation of urban green space within a developing country.
Jin Chen - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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educational and enjoyment benefits of visitor education centers at Botanical Gardens
Biological Conservation, 2012Co-Authors: Jin ChenAbstract:The beautiful scenery and rich diversity of plant species in their living collections have been helping Botanical Gardens (BGs) attract visitors and thus serve as a base for public education on biodiversity. However, outdoor plant collections and landscape provide limited information for interpreting the field of biodiversity science as a whole. As a complement, a new tendency is to set up visitor education centers (VECs) inside BGs. In order to understand the extent that VECs can enhance the educational function of BGs, we conducted a study in five BGs containing VECs throughout mainland China. Our study indicated that the educational function of VECs worked fairly well despite the great variation among the BGs’ VECs. In all five BGs investigated, visitors to the VECs believed that they gained significantly more knowledge compared to those that did not visit VECs. Meanwhile, the VECs’ educational roles were significantly associated with demographic characteristics. In most BGs, visitors that were older, with a lower educational level, from a non-local province as well as those who had visited the garden more than once tended to have a better experience in learning compared to those who did not visit the VECs. Furthermore, in two of the five BGs, visitors to the VECs had significantly higher satisfaction than those who did not visit the VECs. The study results highlight the importance of improving educational facilities such as setting up VECs to allow BGs to play a better role in biodiversity conservation.
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tropical Botanical Gardens at the in situ ecosystem management frontier
Trends in Plant Science, 2009Co-Authors: Jin Chen, Charles H CannonAbstract:Tropical Botanical Gardens (TBGs) should have a leading role in in situ conservation by directly promoting several initiatives, including the reintroduction of important or valuable native species, focused habitat restoration, 'assisted migration' of species that are vulnerable to climate change, and creative local collaboration with governments, NGOs and indigenous peoples. Compared with temperate Gardens, TBGs face heightened challenges for ex situ conservation, including greater absolute amounts of biodiversity, need for resource mobilization, risk of introducing invasive species and potential genetic introgression within living collections. Meanwhile, the ecosystems surrounding TBGs have undergone widespread and rapid conversion. Here, we provide several illustrations of the effectiveness of TBGs in achieving their mission of preserving tropical biodiversity at the frontier of in situ ecosystem management.
Catherine D Ward - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the use and appreciation of Botanical Gardens as urban green spaces in south africa
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2010Co-Authors: Catherine D Ward, Caitlin M Parker, Charlie M ShackletonAbstract:There are few formal studies on the contribution of Botanical Gardens as urban green spaces, particularly within developing countries. Therefore, this paper reports on an assessment of the use and appreciation of Botanical Gardens as urban green spaces in South Africa. Users and staff were surveyed in six national Botanical Gardens. The Gardens provided numerous benefits in terms of conservation, education and recreation. However, the people using the Gardens were not demographically representative of the general population of the surrounding city or town. Generally, most of the visitors were middle- to old-aged, well-educated professionals with medium to high incomes. Most were white and English was their home language. There was an even gender representation. Most visited only a few times per year. The majority of users visited the Gardens for recreation and psychological reasons rather than educational ones. However, the staff of each garden placed emphasis on education in the Gardens and amongst surrounding schools. Most visitors appreciated the conservation dimensions of Botanical Gardens, and felt that there was insufficient public green space in their town or city. Understanding how people perceive and use the Botanical Gardens of South Africa is important to inform future research and strategies regarding the conservation of urban green space within a developing country.
Mojtaba Karimi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Botanical Gardens as valuable resources in plant sciences
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2020Co-Authors: Leila Faraji, Mojtaba KarimiAbstract:Botanical Gardens are collections of plants cultivated in a closed space to be utilized for scientific inquiry, recreation, conservation, Botanical and horticultural education and also for public landscape aesthetics. Due to their richness in plant diversity and also their facilities, Botanical Gardens can have remarkable roles in agricultural studies and plant sciences. In addition, Botanical Gardens are very important regarding to their roles in creating green space in urban spaces, tourist attractions, economical objects and well-being aspects of peoples. Accordingly, in this study, the roles of Botanical Gardens were reviewed regarding to biodiversity and genetic studies, seed science, plant protection, soil and water researches, ecological evaluation, climate change, research and educations. These topics were also discussed regarding to their usage in agriculture and plant science studies. Furthermore, some scientific potentials of Botanical Gardens for future studies have been also taken into account.
Charles H Cannon - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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tropical Botanical Gardens at the in situ ecosystem management frontier
Trends in Plant Science, 2009Co-Authors: Jin Chen, Charles H CannonAbstract:Tropical Botanical Gardens (TBGs) should have a leading role in in situ conservation by directly promoting several initiatives, including the reintroduction of important or valuable native species, focused habitat restoration, 'assisted migration' of species that are vulnerable to climate change, and creative local collaboration with governments, NGOs and indigenous peoples. Compared with temperate Gardens, TBGs face heightened challenges for ex situ conservation, including greater absolute amounts of biodiversity, need for resource mobilization, risk of introducing invasive species and potential genetic introgression within living collections. Meanwhile, the ecosystems surrounding TBGs have undergone widespread and rapid conversion. Here, we provide several illustrations of the effectiveness of TBGs in achieving their mission of preserving tropical biodiversity at the frontier of in situ ecosystem management.