Development of a Sustainable Network to Support Genetic Diversity in Rare and Endangered Japanese Plant Species through Ex-situ Conservation

Today the world confronts a wide range of problems regarding endangered plants and plants declining in number. Plants in their native habitats are under multiple threats, including environmental damage, feeding damage by animals and hybridization with invasive species. Meanwhile, botanical gardens, which play a role in preserving rare and endangered plants, are shutting their doors. To preserve rare wild plants that are threatened with extinction, specimens have to be temporarily removed from their habitats to increase their numbers, in an approach called out-of-habitat conservation.
In this project, we are removing several rare and endangered plant species from their native habitats for research, clarifying genetic and habitat information and building a network to support and manage that information. Ultimately our aim is to create universal mechanisms for reinstating the plants in their native habitats. We are examining ways of enabling anyone to share and manage information simply; currently, for example, we are testing a method using barcodes, which are in widespread use in North America and Europe.
The above research program ended in March 2018. We developed an online management system using QR code tags for specimens removed from their habitats in out-of-habitat conservation, and the system is now being adopted and used by the Ministry of the Environment and and the Japan Association of Botanical Gardens. We are including local communities in these out-of-habitat conservation efforts, focusing on primary schools but also placing specimens in community centers and Rotary in front of the station.

Out-of-habitat conservation of the Chichibu iwazakura (Primula tosaensis)

Out-of-habitat conservation of the Amami-Oshima andromeda (Pieris amamioshimensis) at Uken Village Taken Elementary School on Amamioshima, Kagoshima Prefecture

Specimen of Amami-Oshima Andromeda reinstated in its native habitat