Cacti in distress: howto enhance ex situ conservation strategies through living collections THAÍS MORE I RA HIDALGO DE ALMEIDA * 1 , 2
DIEGO RAF AEL GONZAGA1 , 3 and ARIANE LUNA P EIXO T O 1 , 2
Abstract Living plant collections play a crucial role in ex situ conservation, but their conservation value hinges on assessment of their composition, data quality and on stra- tegic planning for optimization of the collection that takes into account species diversity, conservation status and allo- cation of resources. Cactaceae is one of the most threatened plant families globally and has a broad distribution in Brazil, with two of the seven centres of diversity for this group and a total of 276 known species. Climate change could escalate the threat to cacti, potentially placing 90% of species at risk by 2050. We conducted a case study of Cactaceae in the living Cactarium collection of the Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden, evaluating the diversity of the collection and recommending strategic actions to enhance its conser- vation value. In 2022, we inventoried all specimens in the collection and cross-referenced them with the institutional specimen registry system, Jabot. The collection contains 156 cacti species that naturally occur in Brazil (57% of the total), including 43 species categorized as threatened on the Brazilian Red List and 57 categorized as threatened on the IUCN Red List.We recommend research to map cacti spe- cies that are threatened but not covered by in situ conserva- tion in the country, list the priority species for acquisition by the collection, and make recommendations that will facili- tate improved contribution of the Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden to the conservation of the Brazilian flora.
Keywords Botanic gardens, Cactaceae, ex situ conservation, flora of Brazil, Red List, Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden, succulent plants, threatened species
The supplementary material for this article is available at
doi.org/10.1017/S0030605324000012
Introduction E
x situ conservation initiatives developed by botanic gar- dens have proven effective through the establishment of
*Corresponding author,
thidalgo@jbrj.gov.br 1Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Jardim Botânico, Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil 2Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Escola Nacional de
Botânica Tropical, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 3Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, Instituto de Biodiversidade e Florestas, Santarém, Brazil
Received 14 April 2023. Revision requested 26 September 2023. Accepted 5 January 2024. First published online 17 October 2024.
long-term ecological research and species conservation pro- grammes (Hultine et al., 2016). Well-curated living plant collections play a crucial role in supporting species conser- vation through research, horticulture and education whilst also providing seeds and plants for reintroduction (BGCI, 2014). These collections are expected to become increasingly important for conserving plant diversity, but to maximize their value a careful assessment of these collections is re- quired, ensuring both species and genetic diversity, with a specific emphasis on threatened species (Grace & Majure, 2017). Botanic gardens directly support the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, particularly its Target 8, which aims to conserve 75% of threatened species in ex situ collections, preferably in their home countries, with at least 20% being available for recovery and restoration programmes (Wyse Jackson & Kennedy, 2009; CBD, 2011). At the Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden, one of the cul-
tivated collections is the Cacti and Succulents Themed Collection (referred to here as the Cactarium), which brings together succulent species from various botanical families. Approximately 31% of Cactaceae are theatened globally (Goettsch et al., 2015), and the family Cactaceae is well re- presented in this collection. This family is particularly im- portant in Brazil, where two of the seven global centres of Cactaceae diversity (the Caatinga and Atlantic Forest) are lo- cated (Barthlott et al., 2015), with 38 genera, including 15 en- demic, and a total of 276 species and 102 subspecies (Flora e Funga do Brasil, 2023). The diversity and endemism of this family form a compelling argument for its conservation (Zappi et al., 2011). Brazil has dedicated 24% of its land to the protection of
native vegetation (Embrapa, 2020). However, there are re- ports of illegal extraction (Caitano et al., 2022), and some important areas for in situ conservation remain unprotected (Diniz et al., 2017). Amongst the Cactaceae, 46 native species (of which 17 are categorized as Critically Endangered, 19 as Endangered and three as Vulnerable) have distribution ranges entirely outside these protected areas, probably a result of the limited geographical distribution and high micro-endemism amongst cacti (Goettsch et al., 2019; IUCN, 2023), and therefore lack in situ conservation. One of the predicted effects of global climate change is
that arid and semi-arid environments will cover over half of the terrestrial surface of the Earth by the end of this cen- tury, a 45%increase compared to today (Huang et al., 2016). Although these environments may favour cacti, most of which have crassulacean acid metabolism, the impact of
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. Oryx, 2024, 58(5), 565–575 © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605324000012
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