Tena Moore, Freelance Writer

Interview with Dr. Peter Raven

Dr. Peter Raven is Director of The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis , MI , and a nationally and internationally renowned conservationist deemed by TIME Magazine as "Hero for the Planet". Dr. Raven is also Chairman of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, Chair of the Division of Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council and Co-editor of the journal Flora of China. In addition, he is the Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis . As one of the world's leading botanists and advocates of conservation and biodiversity, Dr. Raven shares our vision of an ecologically sustainable future.

EAG: Hello Dr. Raven. Thank you for agreeing to share your visions and ideas with the Earth Assets Group community. I must commend you on your exquisite success leading the Missouri Botanical Garden for the past three decades, 'cultivating it' (pardon the phrase) into a world-class center for botanical research, education, and horticulture display. To begin with, are there any newly forming research programs at the MBG that you'd like to tell us about?

PR: We have developed a Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development, headed by Olga Martha Montiel, that we hope will sharpen our focus on the uses of plant resources for these purposes around the world. We already have extensive data banks of information on plants from many countries and strong networks in various parts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, but want to help focus this information to help in the best possible way with conservation problems, and to expedite the sustainable use of the plants involved. We generally support resident botanists and technicians within countries and support building institutions in them, so that people can deal with their own natural resources on their own terms.

EAG: I understand that the Applied Research Department at MBG has a DNA Banking program. This program works toward the collection and preservation of botanical specimens from the world over in a DNA bank (TROPICOS) supporting molecular phylogenetics. The TROPICOS database found on the MBG website (see link below for to browse the TROPICOS database) is quite impressive. Could you share with us a little more about this program and database, and also explain the term "bioprospecting" for our viewers?

PR: The DNA bank consists of material that we collect, and encourage our collaborators to collect, along with general inventory work, often in very obscure places or ones that are threatened with development. It is not available for commercial use, but simply allows us to keep material from which studies of gene sequences and individual genes can be carried out easily.

TROPICOS is not directly concerned with DNA, but is a register of information about plants, available for any purpose by anyone. We basically use it for generating maps, conservation information, or anything else that can be helpful in particular kinds of studies.

Through TROPICOS one can find for which plants we have DNA material available for scientific study, but now, as mentioned above, for commercial purposes. It is the most extensive database in the world about plants.

"Bioprospecting" refers to the search for new plant materials or products from plants that can be commercialized. Here at the Missouri Botanical Garden, we carry out some activities of this kind in cooperation with national bodies and a few commercial firms, provided that all legal requirements have been met and there are training possibilities for students and faculty from the countries concerned.

EAG: The MBG staff has been very active in countries such as Madagascar , Suriname and Gabon . It seems your organization has been successful in identifying and protecting a great number of plants, many of which have commercial potential. A question on many people's minds has to do with how indigenous peoples in these countries participate in and benefit from the value that's been derived from native stocks used for pharmaceutical research. Can you enlighten us here?

PR: We work extensively in countries such as Madagascar, Cost Rica, Viet Nam, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua and many others, cooperatively with local scientists and students, to encourage them and help in building biodiversity institutions. Our primary purpose is plant inventory and understanding, the preparation of floras and articles, and the development of national institutions. We also work hard to support conservation initiatives, sometimes though inventory work, and sometimes through direct action.

In some countries, we have worked with national institutions to collect samples for analysis at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, which strictly regulates the uses of the materials that it may discover for anti-cancer or anti-HIV activities, and provides training for the people involved as part of the normal contract. There is no proprietary interest in such products, in accordance with U.S. Government law: they are freely available to anyone. We carry out no activity of any kind in any country for which an effective legal framework does not exist. The problem of seeing that indigenous people within countries benefit from findings relating to plants or other sources of natural products in their areas, or which they have developed, is a serious one throughout the world. As consciousness rises, such people are more usually active participants in such activities, and benefit directly from them. As mentioned above, our activities have to do with building indigenous capabilities and supporting them, with the development of drugs or other products a very small part of the overall activity, and only when it is supported and framed legally and beneficially.

EAG: Building on its past success, what do you anticipate the MBG will accomplish in the coming years? What are your personal goals and accomplishments for the Garden at this point in time?

PR: In a world that is changing as fast as ours, the conservation and use of natural resources that we can manage will have a permanent effect. I believe that the best strategy for accomplishing this is to encourage people everywhere in the world, to form partnerships with them, and to help them build their institutions so that they can take whatever measures they believe are in their own interest.

EAG: I read an interview from the spring, 2002, issue of Sustainability News in which you were asked, "What is an effective way to ensure collaboration to promote sustainability of natural and cultural resources?" You answered, "Laws can be modified to encourage participation by private landowners in such partnerships. People should be rewarded for willing participation in the preservation of endangered and threatened species, rather than punished for problems that may arise." It's evident that you've been promoting these views for a long time. Now that change seems to be underway, how do you see environmental policies developing in future years? What are your personal dreams for this emerging ecological economy?

PR: I consider that involving private landowners, corporations, and private individuals within a legally determined framework to achieve our common goals is essential. Governments cannot do it alone. I think that we will increasingly see conservation and sustainable development as trends in our common interest. We clearly are using the world's resources faster than they can be replenished now, but that will necessarily change at some point in the future. What kind of a world results at that point will depend largely on the measures that we take now, how well we empower people, and how effectively we can form partnerships.

EAG: Earth Assets Group is working to facilitate the development, certification, management and exchange of ecological assets valued in environmental markets around the world. How do you see companies such as EAG fitting into your present idea of an ecologically sustainable future?

PR: We are just at the start of this process, and I applaud the work of EAG in formulating the frameworks within which such activities can be carried out successfully and sustainably.

EAG: Having read the mission statement of EAG, how do our goals and objectives compare with those of the Missouri Botanical Garden ?

PR: They are fully compatible, but we are essentially concerned with building and disseminating knowledge and empowering people throughout the world to be able to use that knowledge effectively for their own benefit. We are trying to develop ways in which the knowledge can be and will be applied more directly to conservation and sustainable development. EAG's activities are fully compatible, but are concerned with boldly forming frameworks for still more advanced versions of sustainability. The activities of both organizations are hampered seriously by the unequal distribution and accessibility of resources around the world, and yet, in different ways, MBG and EAG both have contributed to the solution of this problem, and will continue to do so in the future.

EAG: Did you foresee companies like EAG forming to promote this new ecological paradigm?

PR: New ways of thinking and doing business are badly needed, and EAG is contributing to the development of these frameworks and innovations.

EAG: How could groups like EAG work more closely with MBG to more efficiently achieve our mutual goals?

PR: I think primarily within individual countries where the institutional support has developed to the point where these efforts can be handled properly in the national interest, and be understood as such.

EAG: I understand that the MBG staff is expert in many different areas of biology, ecology and environmental management. Could you explain some of the services that may be available from your team?

PR: We mainly deal with knowledge about individual kinds of plants, their distribution and characteristics. This knowledge is fundamental to all other uses of the plants, and to their conservation. We can effectively partner with anyone or any institution that has need of such information. We shall continue to build institutions and train people around the world to strengthen their ability to act decisively in their own interest.

EAG: On your website I read that a favorite research area of yours is describing the relationships among the species and genera of Onagraceae (primrose) using very precise definitions and methodologies of phylogenetic systematics. Are you currently doing research on Onagraceae? Have you made any surprising discoveries in this area recently?

PR: From the middle 1950s through about 1980 I concentrated my research on this plant family, which consists of about 650 species distributed around the world, and analyzed relationships, usually with collaborators, from a variety of viewpoints. I have had a few dozen graduate students and other associates, some of whom are carrying the analyses forward. As in all areas of systematic biology, the application of precise means of cladistic analysis and the comparison of macromolecular features have revealed much about evolutionary relationships that was obscure previously.

EAG: Are you working on any other research areas that you would like to tell us about?

PR: I pretty much devote my time to finding ways and means to encourage others now, both from the MBG and from countries around the world.

EAG: Thank you so much for your time Dr. Raven. Your lifelong contributions seem to reach across a great span. On behalf of everyone we thank you and wish you much good fortune in your future endeavors!

For more information about Dr. Peter Raven, please explore the following links:

Published Link: http://earth-assets.com/pdfs/profile_raven.pdf

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