San Diego Natural History Museum collaborates binationally.

All around the globe, several institutions are striving to protect plant biodiversity – threatened by climate change, pollution, and resource exploitation. Botany One met with experts of the San Diego Natural History Museum to know more about their plant preservation initiative across the US-Mexico border.

All around the globe, several institutions are striving to protect plant biodiversity – threatened by climate change, pollution, and resource exploitation. Botany One met with experts of the San Diego Natural History Museum to know more about their plant preservation initiative across the US-Mexico border.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, hundreds of amazing botanical species worldwide are increasingly threatened by a combination of unfortunate factors. In addition to the well-known negative effects of climate change and pollution, land use changes and natural resource exploitation also lead to habitat destruction and ultimately affect the diversity of life on Earth. Nevertheless, several institutions are working around the clock in search of effective measures to save as much biological variability as possible in different regions of the globe. This week, Botany One met with scientists at the San Diego Natural History Museum—known affectionately as The Nat—to learn more about their efforts to preserve plant diversity across the US-Mexico border.

Can you tell us more about the problems you are facing in your region?

Although Southern California (U.S.A.) and Baja California (Mexico) share ecosystems and species, the binational region is rarely managed cohesively, with environmental regulations north of the border being far stricter and more closely enforced than those in Mexico. Currently, only one federal law (NOM- 059-SEMARNAT-2010) exists that protects flora in Mexico, but it does not include many of the endemic and rare plant species of Baja California. To address this, we have been leading a binational effort aimed at promoting environmental plant conservation across the borderlands.

Which is the starting point of your initiative?

Scientists from the Museum have been collaborating with experts in Mexico to compile an inventory of native flora found in Baja California, which uses scientific data from The Nat’s herbarium and from other regional herbaria including Mexico, along with the help of active community science projects led by The Nat (Figure 1).

The inventory provides detailed information about the current distribution and protection guidelines for each listed plant. The guidelines and data featured on the inventory stems from historical data, The Nat’s botanical collections, and field work looking for rare plants in Baja California and Southern California. For example, Dicranostegia orcuttian is only found in a short range along the coast & lower foothills from Tijuana to Miller’s Landing, whereas Astragalus brauntonii var. lativexillum is only known from one locality on the south side of Tijuana where it is critically threatened due to development pressures (Figure 2).

This complete list encompasses more than 2,300 taxa of rare, threatened, and endemic plants. We hope this plant list will serve as a starting point to draft a legislative measure to ensure a similar protection of plants across border lines.

What are present and future actions to promote the preservation of natural heritage?

The inventory is just the beginning: we are identifying endangered plant species, recognizing their value, and monitoring alterations in their distribution over time.

“This is only the first step to ensure our region’s flora is here for many generations to come,” declares Mariana Delgado Fernández, associate researcher at The Nat and founder of Expediciones Botánicas.

The Baja California state government has recently recognized and published the list, but has yet to pass legislation that ensures similar protections for flora on both sides of the border. Legislation that can deny changes in land use if protected species are present or enforce fines on entities or people that damage listed plants is pivotal and crucial for the region. The passing of this legislation will help carry out more coordinated and effective conservation efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border

In the meantime, experts involved in the initiative are maintaining the inventory up to date and continuing field work that provides key information about rare and threatened plant species. To see the full plant inventory, visit www.bajacalifornia.gob.mx/medio_ambiente/, scroll to “Listado de Flora Nativa de Baja California,” and click to download.

The Nat is celebrating 150 years …

This initiative is only one example of many conservation efforts throughout the Museum’s long history, with the mission of bringing people closer to nature—which we have been doing for 150 years! To celebrate our 150^th birthday, we have several celebrations, events, and programs available.

Among these celebrations, we have just recently opened a new outdoor exhibit called the Nature Trail, which features native plants from our mission region of Southern California and the Baja California Peninsula (Figure 3). We feel that this native plant garden truly embodies the binational work The Nat has been leading for several years, and provides a free birthday gift to the community to learn about and care for native plants in our region.

All pictures were kindly provided by Paula Sternberg Rodríguez, Science Communications Manager at the San Diego Natural History Museum.