PLANT CONSERVATION METHODS
IN SITU
"ð legal protection of species
" strict protection
" partial protection
vð passive protection
may be sufficient for the plants characteristic for stable ecosystems, like forests
vð active protection
necessary e.g. in the case of plants belonging to semi-natural communities, maintained by the man s activity,
e.g. cutting seedlings of shrubs and trees, pasturing, mowing, fertilizing
"ð monuments of nature (usually individual trees or their groups, e.g. Taxus baccata)
"ð protected areas:
" national parks
" landscape parks
" nature reserves
" Natura 2000 sites
EX SITU (off-site; outside the natural habitat)
"ð gene banks
Advantages:
" increased security of genetic resources
" good source of plant material for propagation, reintroduction, agrotechnical experiments
Disadvantages:
" ex situ conserved sample of the species may represent a narrower range of genetic variation
in comparison with that occurring in the wild
" species conserved ex situ may suffer genetic erosion
" seed banks
Advantages:
" large number of accessions can be stored in a small space
Disadvantages:
" seed collections require careful monitoring, i.e. testing viability of seeds at regular intervals
" necessity of regeneration
" useless for the species that do not produce seeds or produce recalcitrant seeds
" field gene banks = field collections
Advantages:
" specially useful for the species:
- producing recalcitrant seeds
- producing little or no seeds
- preferably stored as a clonal material
- that have a long life cycle to generate breeding and/or planting material
" easy access for characterisation and evaluation
Disadvantages:
" take up a lot of space
" cannot conserve full genetic variation range
" vulnerable to disease epidemics and pests
" in vitro storage and cryopreservation
Cryopreservation = storage of tissue and cell cultures at ultra-low temperatures (e.g. -196°C, in liquid nitrogen)
- used for long-term storage of  difficult species
Disadvantages:
" requires advanced infrastructure and well-trained staff
" need to develop individual maintenance protocols for the species
" risk of somaclonal variation
" high costs
Augmentation (enhancement, reinforcement, restocking)  addition of individuals to an existing population,
with the aim of increasing population size or diversity and improve its viability
Translocation (transplantation)  movement of plants from one on-site location to any other site
Reintroduction  placement of native plants back into formerly occupied or suitable habitat within the plants
natural range
Benign introduction (conservation introduction)  an attempt to establish a species, for the purpose of
conservation, outside its recorded distribution but within an appropriate habitat and eco-geographical area
(when there is no remaining area left within a species historical range)
"ð Introduction of wild growing medicinal plants into cultivation
"ð Sustainable harvesting of wild growing medicinal plants