Objective With the establishment of national botanical gardens in Beijing and Guangzhou, the construction of China's national botanical garden system has entered a stage of substantial progression. How to take this development opportunity to achieve leap-forward, sustainable and high-quality development has become a brand-new proposition for the planning and construction of local botanical gardens. Taking Hangzhou Botanical Garden as an example, this research expounds on the development status and future development ideas of Hangzhou Botanical Garden, in hope of providing some reference for the planning and construction of other local botanical gardens in China.
Analysis This research clarifies the development objective and construction direction of botanical gardens in the future by summarizing the current development status of national botanical gardens. Recently, the national botanical gardens in Beijing and Guangzhou have been approved to be established. Their development goals fully reflect the respect for nature and the ex situ conservation of regional plants. Not only that, national botanical gardens are also required to give full play to the functions of the plant. In particular, attention should be paid to the integrated display of plants and local culture, so as to further strengthen science popularization education. The continuous development of China's national botanical garden system has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges to the development of botanical gardens nationwide. Hangzhou Botanical Garden, initially established in 1956, is one of the earliest local botanical gardens in China after the founding of the People's Republic of China. As a comprehensive botanical garden with the four functions of species introduction and conservation, scientific research, recreational display and science popularization, Hangzhou Botanical Garden have 15 unique special gardens rich in plant resources. Focusing on the scientific research of wild plant resources, Hangzhou Botanical Garden has, since its establishment, obtained 165 scientific research achievements with more than 80 of which winning awards, published more than 500 papers, acquired 16 patents authorized by the People's Republic of China, compiled 6 local standards, and cultivated 15 new plant varieties. Relying on its unique location, excellent hardware conditions and profound cultural heritage, Hangzhou Botanical Garden has been actively working on the collection and ex situ conservation of rare and endangered plant resources in China. Hangzhou Botanical Garden invariably adheres to the philosophy of openness and sharing, and actively carries out foreign exchanges and cooperation, thus effectively broadening its development horizon. Hangzhou Botanical Garden summarizes the following new ideas for future development. 1) Define development mission to promote province-wide development. Hangzhou Botanical Garden will make full use of its unique advantages of "three areas in one" to build a nature-based Jiangnan landscape garden, and accordingly promote the construction of a systematic network system incorporating all botanical gardens in Zhejiang Province. 2) Strengthen ex situ conservation and maintain plant diversity. Hangzhou Botanical Garden will establish and improve the network system of population propagation and ex situ conservation by strengthening the ex situ conservation of plants, and will construct a high-precision technical system for conservation of rare and endangered plants based on the research on genetic diversity of plants, thus further promoting the development and utilization of plant resources. 3) Contribute to the construction of China's national botanical garden system through in-depth scientific research. Hangzhou Botanical Garden will, relying on efficient collaboration mechanism and innovative collaboration mode, join hands with colleges and universities as well as scientific research units in Zhejiang Province in building the Science and Technology Innovation Center of Hangzhou National Botanical Garden, so as to jointly promote the basic scientific researches on plants. 4) Highlight the display function of botanical gardens, and tell a good story about plant culture. Hangzhou Botanical Garden will, on the basis of fully excavating the historical and humanistic details of the core area of West Lake World Cultural Landscape Heritage Site, fully interpret the story between plants and culture, and between botanical garden and culture. It will also build a large-scale exhibition greenhouse based on its sound foundation in such aspects as nature education, flower show, and tourism and cultural creation. 5) Strengthen science popularization education to form a new pattern of sustainable development. Hangzhou Botanical Garden will, through strengthening science popularization education, promote the close integration of plant knowledge into Jiangnan gardens and West Lake culture, and tell a good story about Jiangnan plants, so as to manifest the unique charm of West Lake culture and biodiversity conservation in Hangzhou.
Prospect Local botanical gardens in China should, in serious consideration of the construction standards for national botanical gardens and the construction ideas of the two national botanical gardens respectively located in Beijing and Guangzhou, take the good opportunity of the construction of China's national botanical garden system to, in combination with their respective realities, tell good stories about local plant culture, strengthen science popularization education on local plants, and constantly strengthen the ex situ conservation of regional plant resources. They should also further clarify their respective goal orientation and development ideas, so as to develop into a beneficial supplement in the construction of China's national botanical garden system.
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