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SIBBALDIA: 111 The Journal of Botanic Garden Horticulture, No. 12 ANCILLARY BOTANIC GARDENS IN LEBANON – EMPOWERING LOCAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO PLANT CONSERvATION Salma N. Talhouk1 , Yaser Abunnasr2, Matthew Hall3, Tony Miller4 & Asaad Seif5 ABSTRACT Botanic gardens are integral to the process of plant conservation and development, but interna- tional conservation targets set down in the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation are unlikely to be met in countries such as Lebanon, where land is limited, real-estate value is high, conservation as a national priority is low and scientific botanical knowledge is not prevalent. This paper proposes the recognition of a complementary category of gardens, ancillary botanic gardens (ABGs), which formalise local garden initiatives and facilitate options to tackle space limitations. ABGs are informal, deregulated gardens for the conservation of plant diversity and cultural plant knowledge; they are established by local communities in open sites which have existing levels of land protection owing to their primary purpose as archaeological sites, educa- tional institutions, religious landholdings, private institutions and touristic sites. THE CHANGING ROLE OF TRADITIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS Early botanical gardens catered for the understanding of plants and their usefulness to medicine. Plants were collected, grown and their medicinal properties studied as part of medical training, later regulated as part of a doctor’s undergraduate education (Garrod et al., 1993; Soderstrom, 2008). One of Britain’s oldest botanic gardens, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, was initially established as a physic garden for the cultivation and provision of medicinal plants for study. During the colonial era, botanic gardens began to play an important role as venues for the transfer of economically important plants from one part of the globe to another. In the British Empire, the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew’s main function was the cultivation and distribution of economic crops such as quinine (Desmond, 2007), tea, coffee, rubber and spices (Garrod et al., 1993). Empires gathered information on traditional plant knowledge, spread plant genetic resources in colonies to boost their economic powers and established European-style botanic gardens at home and in the colonies for the purpose of studying and displaying exotic floras 1. Salma N. Talhouk is Associate Dean and Professor of Landscape Horticulture and the corresponding author for this paper. Address: Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. Email: [email protected] 2. Yaser Abunnasr is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture. Address: as above. 3. Matthew Hall is a researcher at Monash University. Address: Faculty of Education, Building 6, Clayton, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. 4. Tony Miller is Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants (CMEP). Address: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, UK. 5. Asaad Seif is Coordinator of Archaeological Research and Excavations. Address: Directorate General of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture, Lebanon. 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 111 08/12/2014 13:50 112 SALMA N. TALHOUK ET AL. (Forbes, 2008; Heywood, 2011). In North America in the 19th century, botanic gardens served as a venue for providing local environmental education (Heywood, 1987). Later, botanic gardens started leveraging their assets, including herbarium collections, live plant specimens, educational outreach activities and research programmes, to contribute to education and scientific advancement in many fields related to the conservation of plant diversity in response to the recent global agenda calling for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity as an underpinning activity for sustainable development (Crane et al., 2009; Donaldson, 2009). By then, botanic gardens were no longer limited to collections and displays. The traditional priorities revolving around horticulture and taxonomic research were supplemented and modified to address biodiversity conser- vation and species and habitat recovery (Havens et al., 2006). More recently, botanic gardens have been called upon to make use of two key areas of strength: namely baseline data provision and ex situ conservation to explore their potential contribution to climate change mitigation by forging interdisciplinary partnerships (Ali & Trivedi, 2011). Botanic gardens are also encouraged to renew their involvement in plant introductions and breeding by making use of their skills and experience of growing, establishing and propagating plants (Heywood, 2011). THE NEED FOR NEW BOTANIC GARDENS Botanic gardens have become centres for plant conservation. Under the terms of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the new Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) 2011–2020, nations have international obligations to document and conserve their globally significant plant diversity and the associated cultural knowledge of their native plants. Botanic gardens directly contribute to Target 8 of the GSPC which demands that 75 per cent of threatened plants are in accessible ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin. Today there are more than 2,500 botanic gardens in 165 countries and these vary widely in size, purpose, design, features and ability to attract visitors (Botanic Gardens Conservation International, 2012). A general overview of their geographic distribution, however, shows that the largest number of botanic gardens are in the European Union, and that many of those outside the EU were established following the colonial tradition of creating European-style botanic gardens (Table 1). These findings suggest that despite global calls for ex situ conservation measures, the establishment of botanic gardens remains rather limited geographically. One reason may be that the perceived impor- tance of a botanic garden and the resulting intellectual, political and financial support necessary to establish and sustain it is rooted in a historical colonial Eurocentric culture that is not globally shared or adopted. For example, countries of the Arab League, of which Lebanon is a member, have the lowest number of botanic gardens, the lowest number of gardens per total area and the lowest number of gardens per number of individuals. This discrepancy in the number of botanic gardens has also been noted for other tropical regions of the world, which are under-represented considering the high 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 112 08/12/2014 13:50 ANCILLARY BOTANIC GARDENS IN LEBANON 113 Number Number Number of of botanic Country of botanic Area (km2) Population individuals per gardens per gardens botanic garden area km2 Arab League 33 7,420,402 345,050,000 10,456,061 224,861 Argentina 48 2,780,400 40,700,000 847,917 57,925 Australia 131 7,692,024 22,300,000 170,229 58,718 Brazil 40 8,515,767 197,000,000 4,925,000 212,894 Canada 105 9,984,670 34,500,000 328,571 95,092 China 151 9,706,961 1,344,000,000 8,900,662 64,285 European Union 807 4,346,198 491,000,000 608,426 5,386 India 131 3,287,263 1,241,000,000 9,473,282 25,094 Russia 109 17,075,400 143,000,000 1,311,927 156,655 USA 760 9,826,675 314,000,000 413,158 12,930 Sources: garden statistics http://www.bgci.org/garden_advanced_search.php; population and areas http:// data.worldbank.org, http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com, http://www.countryreports.org Table 1 Comparative statistics for botanic gardens around the world by region or country, size and number of people and/or area served per garden biodiversity they harbour in contrast to countries in temperate-zone climates which have the largest concentration of botanic gardens (Pinheiro et al., 2006). Furthermore, the species richness in many tropical gardens is low and does not reflect the natural biodi- versity richness of the tropics, hence the necessity to better sustain botanic gardens in the tropics (Parmentier & Pautasso, 2010). These findings highlight the need to broaden participation in ex situ conservation and encourage the establishment of botanic gardens worldwide. This paper explores how the establishment and management of botanic gardens can be better aligned with local expectations and cultural perceptions. In order to achieve this we investigate plausible reasons that have prevented the establishment of botanic gardens worldwide using Lebanon as a case study. A BOTANIC GARDEN FOR LEBANON? A CASE STUDY Located on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Basin, Lebanon is a predominantly mountainous country, consisting of a narrow coastline and two mountain chains, the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon (up to 3,087m), running parallel to the Mediterranean coast and separated by a high plateau, the Bekaa. The country contains botanical elements from temperate, arid and tropical biomes creating what are recognised as typical Mediterranean plant communities, and forms part of the Mediterranean Basin Global Biodiversity Hotspot, with an estimated 3,000 plant species (Post & Dinsmore, 1933; Mouterde, 1970; WWF and IUCN, 1994; Khouzami et al., 1996; Blamey & 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 113 08/12/2014 13:50 114 SALMA N. TALHOUK ET AL. Grey-Wilson, 1998; Blondel & Aronson, 1999; Myers et al., 2000) (Figs 1–6). Whilst Lebanon has taken steps towards in situ conservation through the establishment of nature reserves and protected areas (Ministry of the Environment, 2012), the country currently lacks ex situ plant conservation collections, an important component of the plant conservation matrix. In line with the global agenda of the CBD, to which Lebanon is a signatory, the country’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan calls for the establishment of botanic gardens in addition to in situ measures (NBASP, 1998). The role of botanic gardens in supporting plant conservation through education and research is undisputed. Yet it is difficult to justify the need for a botanic garden in Lebanon where land and financial resources are limited, real-estate value is high, political instability is high and ex situ conservation as a national priority is low. Given this national reality, and the difficulty the country is already experiencing in sustaining the protection and management of declared protected areas, alternative venues need to be examined to encourage the establishment of botanic gardens. Establishing a botanic garden is a major undertaking that is different now from in the past when lands were readily available and gardens were started with little thought of financial sustainability or community participation and support. Today, the idea of appropriating land to establish botanic gardens and dedicate financial resources to operate such institutions is considered to be a foreign and unjustifiably expensive initiative. Yet such gardens are important to help safeguard Lebanon’s floristic diversity because the country is witnessing rapid and systematic destruction of its native flora and remnant semi-natural habitats. DECONSTRUCTING AND RECONSTRUCTING BOTANIC GARDENS For botanic gardens to be established and sustained by Lebanon and the Lebanese, there is a need to deconstruct the traditional concepts of a botanic garden and recreate institu- tions based on new components that are culturally acceptable. Land – Dealing with limited availability of land: botanic gardens as a secondary function of sites To establish a botanic garden, there is a need to appropriate land for this purpose. In Lebanon, land value is very high in cities, and in more remote areas, priorities are given to urban development projects including tourist resorts. Accordingly, a botanic garden is not enough of a priority to set aside land specifically for this purpose as it cannot compete with other land use options that may be more lucrative. An alternative is to look for lands where urban and agriculture expansion options are restricted and where a botanic garden is one of the few possible land uses. One such example is the peripheral lands of archaeological sites. Despite land limitation and high-value real estate, Lebanon, which is a cradle of ancient civilisa- tions, has taken national measures to appropriate lands to conserve its archaeological 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 114 08/12/2014 13:50 ANCILLARY BOTANIC GARDENS IN LEBANON 115 Fig. 1 Rocky coast, altitude 20m, Thermomediterranean vegetation zone, Anfeh, North Lebanon. Photo: Lama Tawk. Fig. 2 Pine forest, altitude 300m, typical Thermomediterranean vegetation zone, Bentael, Mount Lebanon. Photo: Lama Tawk. 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 115 08/12/2014 13:50 116 SALMA N. TALHOUK ET AL. Fig. 3 Juniperus excelsa is a pioneer tree in the Presteppic Supramediterranean vegetation zone,Yammouneh, Bekaa, altitude 1,200m. Photo: Lama Tawk. Fig. 4 Wine grape farms, altitude 1,600m, Presteppic mountainous Mediterranean vegetation zone, Ainata, Bekaa. Photo: Lama Tawk. 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 116 08/12/2014 13:50 ANCILLARY BOTANIC GARDENS IN LEBANON 117 Fig. 5 Mixed oak forest, altitude 1,800m, typical mountainous Mediterranean vegetation zone, Mazraat Kfardebian, Mount Lebanon. Photo: Lama Tawk. Fig. 6 Mountaintop flora, altitude 2,800m, Presteppic Oromediterranean vegetation zone, Qornet El Sawda, North Lebanon. Photo: Lama Tawk. See Talhook (2008) for an explanation of the vegetation zone characteristics. 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 117 08/12/2014 13:50 118 SALMA N. TALHOUK ET AL. heritage. All the archaeological sites in Lebanon, with the exception of Byblos, consist of an excavated area and a protective ‘buffer zone’. These protective areas, which are peripheral to the excavated sites, consist of lands that are sheltered from urban and agricultural encroachment and they harbour undisturbed semi-natural landscapes that often provide refuges for native plants and animals (Shepherd, 1992). The protected status of the lands surrounding excavation sites and their presence in proximity to towns and villages represent a unique opportunity to establish botanic gardens as appended entities that do not interfere physically or functionally with archae- ology, the primary site function. With botanic gardens established on their peripheries, archaeological sites can acquire an additional function of serving local communities, which may add value at least in terms of a local sense of ownership of the site as a whole and thus ensure a local willingness to conserve it. This is especially applicable to rural areas where excavation of archaeological sites may await any activity for tens of years. Today local communities living near these sites consider them to be abstract non-functional cultural landmarks that provide no tangible value, neither as local cultural heritage nor as a protected open space. By establishing botanic gardens on peripheral areas of archaeological sites the botanic garden institution becomes a secondary attribute to the land that has already been assigned a primary function and use – archaeology – and has been protected for this purpose. This paradigm shift is important because by shifting land assignment from primary to secondary, the gardens are no longer a burden taking away land area from other possible uses but are seen as a value-added opportunity, providing a comple- mentary function to an already assigned and protected land. Taxonomy – Dealing with taxonomic impediment: enabling local knowledge to manage botanic gardens and spread ecological knowledge Colonialism has left Lebanon with a number of comprehensive national floras, produced by French (Mouterde, 1966), and British (Post & Dinsmore, 1932) scholars; however, no botanic gardens were established in the country during this period. Accordingly, Lebanon did not ‘inherit’ the Eurocentric botanic garden legacy expertise in taxonomy and horticulture which provide the standard employment opportunities created by botanic gardens. Today, formal plant taxonomic knowledge in Lebanon is a bottleneck monopolised by a limited number of national experts, most of whom lack horticultural expertise. Given this lack of human capital, any intent to establish a botanic garden that follows international benchmarks will require formally trained botanists and will thus exclude the potential of engaging all the taxonomically illiterate Lebanese, some of whom are highly knowledgeable about native plants, their cultivation, use and relation to local culture. Such grassroots exclusion is likely to decrease general enthusiasm and support for botanic gardens and confine the perception of a botanic garden as a scientific luxury rather than a necessity for future community and environmental health. The CBD highlights the importance of local ecological knowledge. It states that 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 118 08/12/2014 13:50 ANCILLARY BOTANIC GARDENS IN LEBANON 119 each contracting Party should as far as possible conserve and maintain the knowledge and traditional lifestyles of local communities which are relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity (Article 8(j)). The newly agreed GSPC 2011–2020 contains a number of targets relevant to the issue of local, sustainable use of biodiversity including Target 13 ‘Indigenous and local knowledge innovations and practices associated with plant resources, maintained or increased, as appropriate, to support customary use, sustainable livelihoods, local food security and health care’, and Target 14 ‘The importance of plant diversity and the need for its conservation incor- porated into communication, education and public awareness programmes’ (Sharrock, 2012). A key consideration in the preservation and transmission of local cultural knowledge is the terminology which is used to engage people in Lebanon and the Arab world in general. Whilst scientific plant nomenclature is vital for providing a stable international standard for communicating information about plants, local naming is equally important for engaging and enthusing local people who are largely unfamiliar with a culturally alien system of Aristotelian types and Linnaean binomials. Local language is a funda- mental, yet often overlooked, aspect of traditional ecological knowledge and is crucially important for its preservation (Maffi, 2001; 2005). In Lebanon, local information about ecological resources is encoded in the local language, Arabic, on at least three primary levels: lexicon, grammar and discourse (Zent, 2009). The local lexicon of ethno- biological names, toponyms and biotic community classifications is integral to local subsistence, resource management and landscape perception. The employment of local nomenclature in the botanic garden (from taxon to landscape scales) is vital for effective local communication and engagement, both of which are fundamental in developing the necessary enthusiasm for plant conservation (GSPC Target 14). ANCILLARY BOTANIC GARDENS – A NEW CATEGORY OF BOTANIC GARDENS We propose the recognition of a new category of botanic gardens termed ‘ancillary botanic gardens’ (ABG). Synonyms of the term ancillary include ‘secondary’, ‘additional’ and ‘supporting’. Ancillary botanic gardens are secondary on a spatial level in that they are estab- lished on peripheral areas of sites already assigned a primary purpose. These sites are managed and accessible to the public but are practically restricted and protected through specific legislation and policies. Once a peripheral land opportunity is identified the objectives guiding the planning, design, and establishment of an ABG include no or minimal interference with the primary function of the site. At the social level, ABGs have an additional contribution in that they engage new constituencies, due to their informal structure led locally by taxonomically illiterate communities who rely on local nomenclature to sustain the transfer of traditional and ethnobotanical knowledge and facilitate the link between plants and people. ABGs could play an important supporting role because they act as ‘custodians’ for 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 119 08/12/2014 13:50 120 SALMA N. TALHOUK ET AL. traditional land management practices and ethno-ecological knowledge. They would be decentralised entities designed to inspire and comfort visitors and contribute to local pride in biodiversity. ABGs could be dispersed throughout the country providing a diversity of environmental conditions in which plants’ response to climate change can be monitored along altitudinal gradients and thus contribute to global change research. A key aspect of ABGs is that unlike botanic gardens, their roles and scope are not benchmarked against international standards (Botanic Gardens Conservation International, 2012). This however should not lead to the conclusion that ABGs are ‘mere’ public parks or pleasure gardens because they are implemented following a locally driven mission. Besides the reasonable degree of permanence and openness to the public, ABGs can have a level of outreach and educational opportunity but they need not have a scientific basis for the collections or proper documentation, regular monitoring, ‘adequate’ labelling and strategies to communicate with other gardens, or undertake any research activities. As such the mandate of these ‘deregulated’ entities can be defined by immediate stakeholders. In summary, ABGs are secondary in the space they occupy. They are planned and managed by local citizens, their establishment is negotiated and regulated between local groups and primary site function owners, and their mandates, defined by immediate stakeholders, are flexible rather than prescriptive. Sites presenting opportunities for the establishment of ABGs ABGs take advantage of primary site functions or land-use types that offer, within their boundaries, unbuilt land or open spaces that are maintained by current users; preserved due to societal need or significance; or protected due to legislation. In Lebanon, these categories include archaeological sites, educational facilities, religious land holdings and institutional and touristic sites. These are characterised by having unbuilt land or green spaces that support the primary site function and by their extensive geographic distribution in urban and rural areas. Archaeological sites: Lebanon’s archaeological sites are abundant, under-utilised and well distributed across different eco-geographic zones. The sites span historical periods from the Neolithic age to the more recent Medieval and Ottoman fortified sites. These sites are not only found in the main cities but are also interspersed between towns and villages and are part of the villages’ daily life encounter and scenery, providing an opportunity to engage different social groups and communities. Lebanon has around 350 archaeological sites, 200 of which have been excavated, exposed to shallow or deep soundings, or surveyed. The potential lies in the buffer zones that are within the site limits protecting the archaeological remains. The establishment of ABGs on these buffer zones provides an opportunity to draw attention to the country’s national cultural heritage by encouraging site visits driven by another purpose, the visit to a local botanic garden. Educational institutions: University campuses are sites where young people in both rural and urban areas spend the majority of their young formative lives. Educational 9781906129026_sibbaldia12.indd 120 08/12/2014 13:50

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alien system of Aristotelian types and Linnaean binomials. Local language is a . and philanthropic objectives (Kahf, 2003). While all these sites may
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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.