A growing number of plant species are going extinct because of climate change, posing a serious threat to the planet. Once they are gone, they are lost forever — or maybe not.
A Taiwanese nongovernmental organization, the Dr Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Center (KBCC), is combating this trend through its dedication to conserving plants, hoping ultimately to reintroduce endangered species into nature.
The KBCC has collected 33,309 plant species, mostly tropical and subtropical, making it the world’s largest plant repository in term of varieties, said Li Chia-wei (李家維), who heads the Pingtung County-based plant shelter.
Photo: CNA
England’s Royal Botanic Gardens has about 18,000 species, the US’ Missouri Botanical Garden has 17,500 and China’s Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden has 13,000, Li said.
The KBCC keeps live species instead of storing seeds in a controlled environment like other conservation programs, such as England’s Millennium Seed Bank Project.
The center said its approach gives endangered plants the chance to proliferate, making it more likely that they can be recultivated in their original environment.
Among the KBCC’s collection are plant species endemic to Taiwan, such as the critically endangered Lithocarpus formosanus and Rhododendron kanehirai, which is extinct in the wild, according to the center’s database.
The collection also includes several critically endangered plants found on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), such as the Endiandra coriacea, Polyalthia liukiuensis and Pinanga tashiroi.
This Noah’s Ark of flora has focused mainly on supporting local plant conservation efforts and serving as a model for similar undertakings worldwide.
The KBCC has also played a role in advancing plant preservation efforts in other countries, including the Solomon Islands, known for its rich and diverse flora.
In 2013, the center teamed up with Taiwan’s International Cooperation and Development Fund, a government-funded agency involved in foreign agricultural aid programs, to help the Solomon Islands inventory and conserve its plant resources, Li said.
The challenges in store for the project were evident as soon as the team arrived in the country, Li said, citing as an example the need bring materials from Taiwan to construct a greenhouse so that living plants could be conserved.
However, the project’s importance was obvious during its five-year run, as native plant species were threatened by logging and the clearing of land for cash crops such as palm oil and cocoa.
“The logging business in the Solomon Islands is mainly run by Chinese, so most of the logs are shipped there,” Li said, adding that some were also destined for Taiwan.
The survey team, comprised of botany experts, archived 5,000 specimens of different plants, including a variety of orchids and other wild vascular plants that had never been identified before, he said.
The team also staged workshops and set up modern equipment at the government-run National Herbarium and Botanical Gardens, as well as helping to publish an illustrated survey of Solomon Islands flora to give the country a sound foundation for further conservation and sustainability.
“Plant conservation knows no boundaries,” Li said.
In 2016, the team tried to duplicate its success in Sao Tome and Principe, also renowned for a rich ecosystem, but the naton later broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan and the project was suspended, Li said.
However, before that incident, the team retrieved a native Begonia specimen that was on the verge of extinction, he added.
That acquisition was notable, given that the KBCC has always aspired to be a Noah’s Ark of tropical and subtropical plants, a vision that Li shared with Leslie Koo (辜成允), sponsor of the center and chairman of Taiwan Cement Corp, who died aged 62 of head injuries.
The shelter idea was conceived in 2006, during a chat with Koo, Li said, adding that Koo quickly agreed to become its sponsor.
Koo donated land to the project and the center, named after Koo’s mother, now has eight greenhouses spread over two hectares.
Li stressed that he would always be grateful to his friend for these contributions.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
NO RIGHT: After 38 years of martial law under the former KMT government, the KMT is the least qualified to accuse others of harboring such intentions, DPP officials said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of creating a stir on social media by implying that the government supports martial law, adding that the KMT is the least qualified to criticize others after decades of martial law in Taiwan under the former KMT regime. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol late on Tuesday night declared martial law (which was rescinded six hours later), the DPP caucus issued a statement on Thread saying that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a situation similar to that in South Korea, which had prompted Yoon to declare martial law. “The South
RSS