From Botany Bay to Breathing Planet: an Australian perspective on plant diversity and global sustainability

Abstract

With a special focus on Australia, this paper proposes that plant diversity is fundamentally important for sustainable living at a time of unprecedented global change. The establishment of Australia as a nation is intimately linked with Botany Bay, named by Captain James Cook following the enthusiasm for novel botanical discoveries made by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on the Endeavour’s first Australian landfall in 1770. On returning to England, Banks was introduced to King George III, and they became firm friends, the King inviting Banks to become honorary Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew in west London. Today, Kew is the world’s largest botanical garden, with the most diverse scientific collections of plants on Earth, leading research, and conservation projects like the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership. Plant diversity has never been more important than now to help with solutions towards sustainable livelihoods. This paper touches upon global plant diversity patterns, ongoing scientific discovery, and strategies that have helped and will help towards humans living with and sustainably using plant diversity. Such approaches are embraced in the Breathing Planet Programme, Kew’s strategy with partners for inspiring and delivering science-based plant conservation worldwide, aimed at enhancing the quality of life at a time of unprecedented global change. Today’s plant science and cross-cultural learning with Australia’s Aboriginal people are also helping better understand the astounding place that Banks first stepped onto at Botany Bay, and demonstrating that Australia has much to teach the world about plant diversity and human enrichment on ancient landscapes. OCBIL Theory is explored briefly to exemplify this contention; OCBIL is an acronym for ‘old, climatically buffered, infertile landscapes’.