Conserving nature

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">as a part of the india-uk science festival 2002, sir ghillean tolmie prance was recently in the capital to deliver a talk on the ‘current trends in biodiversity conservation’. a trained plant taxonomist, prance has spent over eight years on botanical exploration in amazonian brazil. he is a recipient of several awards and recognitions including the fellowship of the royal society in 1993, ‘international cosmos prize’, ‘ and the ‘victoria medal of honour’- from the royal horticulture society in 1999.an author of 14 books, prance is a visiting professor at reading university and mcbryde professor at the us national tropical botanical garden in hawaii. <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">education times</span> speaks to prance who is presently the scientific director of the prestigious eden project in cornwall, uk. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">what is the eden project all about?</span> it is a botanical project built to celebrate millennium in britain, at the south of london. it is built at a clay mine and has two hectares of rain forest as well as mediterranean eco-system. the garden is divided into three zones namely africa, south america and asia. all the plants at eden tell us a story. unlike other botanical gardens where focus is on developing rare plants, we have got spices, crops and other plants used in our daily lives. the idea behind the project is to show importance of plants and to sustain ecological development. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">what is the interest level on undertaking studies in environment?</span> in uk, people are increasingly becoming interested in the environment. i get this view about the indians as well. it is vital that we are aware of our environment. the public interest in the field has increased the number of jobs in the sector, not necessary in the science discipline. apart from the government organisations, one can work with an ngo as well. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">what is the focus of your talk at the india-uk science fair?</span> my emphasis is on conversation of our ecology. there are two ways of conservation - conserving forests as in where they are and conserving plants away from society, in the form of botanical gardens, zoos and seed banks. although my emphasis will be on conservation in the natural habitat, we cannot ignore the profound role played by the botanical gardens. conservation and utilisation should go hand in hand. eco-tourism is a good example of it. </div> </div>