Title: Australia
1Australias Virtual Herbarium
- Unlocking Australias
- plant biodiversity Information
2- Australias biodiversity is at risk from
inappropriate land management practices and
historical ignorance of the implications. - We know a lot about what not to do, but
redressing the damage, and managing better for
the future, requires sound information about our
biodiversity - what was here, and where it lived.
3- Information on plant identity and location is
derived from herbarium specimen records. - These records are the building blocks for plant
taxonomy and classification.
4- Australias Virtual Herbarium will provide access
to the combined information on each individual
herbarium specimen in Australias major herbaria.
5Access is being made progressively available on
the Internet.
- The internet will provide quicker and easier
access and use, and wider availability.
The AVH is unique and a world first
6The AVH is a collaborative project of the State,
Commonwealth and Territory herbaria.It is being
developed under the auspices of the Council of
Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH),
representing the major Australian herbarium
collections.Each herbarium retains
custodianship and is responsible for management
of its own data as part of the national
distributed database.
7Contribution of specimen data by major herbarium
8- Applications and benefits include
- easy and quick access to authoritative plant
information - mapping geographic distribution of plants
- location and mapping of rare and threatened
species - historical and baseline information for
revegetation programs - assist with selection of suitable and adequate
conservation reserves - better informed environmental planning
9- Potential users include
- farmers
- Landcare groups
- revegetation groups
- Greening Australia
- natural resource managers
- government agencies
- local government
- indigenous communities
- schools and educational institutions
- mining industry
10In 1999, the Harden Murrumburrah Landcare Group
approached the Australian National Herbarium for
help with revegetating their land with the
original native plants of the region.
1907
With only 2.8 percent of the original native
vegetation remaining from widespread landclearing
in the Harden Shire, landholders had to largely
guess what once grew there.
11- Herbarium records were searched to compile a list
of all the plants collected from the Harden
region since 1770. - The records also provided information on soils
and associated species. Local landholders and
those with specialised knowledge then added to
this pool of data, eg how to propagate and where
to plant them. - This data is available through the web to the
Landcare group to plan their revegetation work.
12- A critical first step in building the AVH is to
capture and load the information contained in
Australias six million herbarium specimens in a
standard format within the next five years
13The databasing task - 3.3 million specimens
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15This task is calculated to cost 10 million.
- Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments
agreed in 2001 to contribute 7,830,000 on the
basis that a further 2,000,000 would be raised
from the private sector over the next five years
to complete the project.
The AVH Trust was established in late 2001 to
coordinate the fund raising for this project.
16The AVH Trust is registered and donations are
tax-deductible.
Environment Australia is acting as the agent for
receipt and disbursement of funds, both
Commonwealth and private sector, to the
individual herbaria on advice and agreement from
CHAH.
17Supporting the AVH Trust offers the opportunity
to participate in
- a collaborative national project supported by the
Commonwealth, State and Territory governments and
involving many of Australias leading scientific
institutions - an ethical and green initiative
- internationally innovative technology - a
world-first - encouraging discovery and understanding of the
plant world - unlocking Australias plant biodiversity
information for all users
18Private financial supporters will be acknowledged
appropriately on the AVH website and in any other
promotional or educational material about the
AVH.
19- Trustees
- Peter Cochrane, Director of National Parks,
Environment Australia (Chair) - Margaret Ross, Chair John T Reid Charitable Trust
- Ian Blackburne, Chair Royal Botanic Gardens
Sydney Trust - Allan Holmes, Chief Executive, Department for
Environment and Heritage, South Australia - Executive Officer Helen Halliday, Environment
Australia
20- Herbaria associated with the AVH are located in
every capital city of Australia.To arrange an
inspection to discover more about their relevance
to conservation and land management please
contact the relevant Director
- Phone
- 08 8222 9326
- 07 3896 9325
- 02 6246 5113
- 08 8922 0809
- 03 6226 2635
- 03 9252 2300
- 08 9334 0500
- 02 9231 8113
City Adelaide Brisbane Canberra Darwin Hobart Melb
ourne Perth Sydney
Director Dr Laurie Haegi Dr Gordon Guymer Dr Judy
West Dr Greg Leach Dr Gintaras Kantvilas Professor
Jim Ross Dr Neville Marchant Dr Tim Entwisle
Email haegi.laurie_at_saugov.sa.gov.au gordon.guymer_at_
env.qld.gov.au judy.west_at_csiro.au greg.leach_at_nt.go
v.au gkantvilas_at_tmag.tas.gov.au jim.ross_at_rbg.vic.g
ov.au nevillem_at_calm.wa.gov.au tim.entwisle_at_rbgsyd.
nsw.gov.au
21Australias Virtual Herbarium
- Unlocking Australias
- plant biodiversity Information