Participating Institutions - Development
Follow up on the Biodiversity Education Colloquium
The Biodiversity Education Colloquium, organised as part of the Investing in Nature: A Partnership for Plants in Canada project was held at the Montreal Botanical Garden in Quebec, Canada, from December 1 to 3, 2004. In the largest get-together of Canadian botanical garden & arboreta representatives in over 30 years, 63 representatives from 27 botanical gardens, arboreta and related institutions across the country gathered to develop ways of improving and expanding educational efforts to promote plant conservation, biodiversity and sustainability. For the second day of the colloquium that focused specifically on biodiversity education, 36 additional environmental educators from Quebec also joined us.
Due to the strong common interest in education for plant conservation and sustainability, a powerful cohesiveness was established between the participants. The Biodiversity Education Colloquium addressed a number of themes, including developing and evaluating educational programs on biodiversity and conservation, using a variety of education and communication technologies and various aspects of promoting conservation and sustainability. Working groups made recommendations and developed plans to strengthen collaborative efforts to more effectively educate and engage visitors in conservation.
We gratefully acknowledge support from sponsors: HSBC Holdings plc. Department of Canadian Heritage, Friends of the Montreal Botanical Garden, Marie-Victorin Foundation and partners: Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Canadian Botanical Conservation Network, Royal Botanical Gardens and Montreal Botanical Garden.