The need for action on the global environment is now well understood and governments, agencies, non‐governmental organizations and botanic gardens have all been working in their various ways to promote environmental sustainability and reduce species and habitat loss for at least 10–20 years. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) has been widely adopted, particularly by the botanic garden community, and has resulted in many successes despite failing to achieve its ultimate goal of halting the loss of plant biodiversity. The objectives and targets for Phase 2 of the GSPC, running from 2010 to 2020, mirror those of Phase 1 and had been largely agreed prior to their formal adoption at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya in October 2010. However, to be successful, the scientific contribution of botanic gardens needs to be strengthened, as does government policy and commitment. Botanic garden research to underpin conservation action, including the role of botanic garden horticulture, training and international capacity building, has a major part to play and needs to be better understood and better coordinated. We provide examples based on the experience of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in the UK and overseas. Government policy, at national and international levels, needs to reflect the fundamental importance of plant diversity in maintaining the biosphere and supporting humanity. The commitment of significant new resources is an essential prerequisite for success, but this needs to be well coordinated, inclusive of all stakeholders and carefully targeted. A further challenge is the need to integrate better the plant diversity‐related activities of what are currently diverse and disconnected sectors, including agriculture, forestry, protected area management and botanic gardens. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 166, 267–281.

With % of trees (. , species) threatened with extinction there is an urgent need for botanical gardens to protect threatened trees in dedicated conservation collections. Species conservation is mentioned in the mission statements of most major botanical gardens, yet the actual conservation value of existing ex situ tree collections is low. We conducted interviews with members of the botanical garden community and organized a symposium at the th Global Botanic Gardens Congress to identify challenges and collect recommendations to improve living ex situ tree collections. We summarize and evaluate this information to facilitate gardens becoming more effective agents for global tree conservation. Experts agree that gardens offer valuable strengths and assets for tree conservation. Some challenges exist, however, including a lack of strategic conservation focus, collection management limitations, gaps in fundamental biological information for trees, and a lack of global coordination. Solutions are offered to facilitate gardens and arboreta of all sizes to participate more effectively in tree conservation. Prioritizing genetically diverse tree collections, participating in conservation networks, developing tree-specific conservation models and guidelines, and strengthening tree science research efforts are a few examples. Most importantly, a more coordinated global effort is needed to fill knowledge gaps, share information, and build conservation capacity in biodiversity hotspots to prevent the loss of tree species.

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The one activity that is common to all botanic gardens is the cultivation of plants. Many also have education, science, conservation, events and exhibitions programmes but cultivating plants is at the core of every botanic garden and plants are used to support all these activities. With existing and potential threats to plants and habitats it is essential that botanic gardens contribute to both the science and practice of plant conservation. This is because they have the staff skills and some of the resources required to make a significant contribution. However, if the live plant collections are to play a part in this work, and they must, then they must be guided by a Collection Policy and achieve the highest standards of sampling, record keeping and cultivation to make sure that the plants in question are fit for purpose. After describing the Collection Policy for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) in Part 1, the paper covers the importance of wild origin material, targets, review and audits in driving up standards in Part 2. In Part 3, the inadequacy of some conservation collections are described. The approach taken by three different conservation programmes at RBGE which have embraced the need for rigorous standards in conservation collections are then described. These are the International Conifer Conservation Programme, the Scottish Plants Programme and RBGE's Target 8 (of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation) Project. Examples from RBGE's Living Collection and Collection Policy are used throughout to illustrate the points being made.