The digitization of herbarium collections has been shown to provide a growing resource in conservation science. Mobilizing the data on portals such as GBIF allows researchers to access key taxonomic, habitat, and geographical data that would otherwise be unavailable unless institutions are physically visited. These data are used notably in conservation assessments, distribution studies, and the publication of new species (Canteiro et al. 2019).
The herbarium specimens held in Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Natural History Museum, London, and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh are an unparalleled resource, estimated to hold representatives of around 85% of known plant species. By working collectively for the first time on a non-type material digitization project, the three institutions collaborated to generate data for the subtribe Phaseolinae and rosewoods totaling 37,000 legume specimens.
This pilot project was made possible through Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)-allocated, Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding. This aid money is distributed by the UK government in its “global efforts to defeat poverty, tackle instability and create prosperity in developing countries”. This project focused on two case studies:
Study i. Supporting the development of dry beans as a sustainable and resilient crop. Beans from the subtribe Phaseolinae, including cowpeas, lablab, and wild beans, are extremely tolerant of poor-quality soils and drought. As a consequence, they are particularly suitable for low-input agricultural production systems. An estimated 14.5 million hectares of land are used for the planting of cowpea each year with around 80% of that in Development Assistance Committee countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Study ii. Aiding conservation and sustainable use of rosewoods and padauk (Dalbergia L.f. and Pterocarpus Jacq.). Dalbergia is distributed throughout tropical Asia, Africa, and the Americas with many species being regionally endemic. Species also vary in habit from shrubs and trees to robust lianas. Pterocarpus is also pantropically distributed in a wide variety of habitats. However, suitable habitat across the natural range of these genera is now limited for many species due to a range of threats, namely deforestation, forest conversion for agriculture/human development, and logging.