Exploring the Impact of Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh's Living and Preserved Collections on Climate and Biodiversity Outcomes in the 21st Century

Since 1670, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) has worked globally to protect the natural world, and the organisation now curates a collection which includes libraries, archives, and Scotland's national collections of plants and herbarium specimens. Today, the role of botanic gardens in relation to the growing climate and biodiversity crises, alongside debates on the decolonisation of conservation and collections, require much critical thinking. The studentship will examine these questions by studying recent RBGE (2017-2025) activities, working with communities and policymakers in three countries: Nepal, Tanzania, and Scotland.

RBGE's association with Nepal traces back to the 19th century, and continues today with the Flora of Nepal project, an international collaboration with partners including the Nepali Government's Department of Plant Resources. RBGE's connection with Tanzania is more recent, but no less significant, comprising a number of research and community-based projects looking at the patterns and drivers of forest management and logging.

Working with communities in Nepal and Tanzania and building on RBGE's Racial Justice Report, the studentship will contribute to the decolonisation debates by exploring the impact heritage organisations are having in these communities both through policy and local-level decision making. This will be matched with a comparative study in Scotland, about how botanical collections and their communication to non-specialist audiences has an impact on tackling the climate and biodiversity crisis. The research aims to provide information and guidance to the wider cultural heritage community regarding the collection, curation, and communication of collections for future impact.