Plant conservation

The National Trust’s 200 gardens contain one of the world’s most diverse and important collections of outdoor cultivated plants.

© NTPL / Stephen Robson

Preserving this remarkable biodiversity becomes more urgent every day, as plants are increasingly threatened—in cultivation as well as in the wild—by climate change, pests, diseases and human activity. The National Trust is recording, analysing, and propagating its collection to secure the future of significant, rare and endangered plants held within its gardens and parks.

As part of its national conservation policy, the Trust collaborates with other botanical institutions and contributes to initiatives like the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. The Trust also recognises the necessity of informing gardeners and the wider community about the significance of garden plants and the need for their conservation.

© NTPL / Andrew Butler / Stephen Robson

Find out more with these websites:

• Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
• Millennium Seed Bank Project, Kew
• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
• National Council for the Conservation of Plants & Gardens (NCCPG)
• PlantNetwork: The Plant Collections Network of Britain & Ireland
• The International Conifer Conservation Programme, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
• Global Trees Campaign