Biodiversity constitutes the fundamental cornerstone of ecosystem stability and resilience, furnishing indispensable services that encompass food production, the provision of clean water, climate regulation and the control of disease. Nonetheless, the planet is currently experiencing an unprecedented biodiversity crisis. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has documented those anthropogenic activities that have accelerated extinction rates to approximately 1000 times the natural background level, with the principal drivers of this decline comprising habitat destruction, climate change, the over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution and the incursion of invasive species (IPBES, 2019; Stokstad, 2019; Frans and Liu, 2024). Deforestation, agricultural expansion and urbanization are instrumental in fragmenting habitats, whilst climate change exacerbates these impacts by disrupting biological processes, such as migration patterns and reproductive cycles and by heightening the likelihood that entire habitats, populations or even species will be lost both during extreme climatic events and gradually over time as local conditions for biodiversity change. Over-exploitation, pollution and invasive species, pests and diseases can alter, and in some instances irreparably damage, the structure of ecosystems. The consequent degradation of ecosystems serves to undermine the resilience of biodiversity, thereby diminishing the capacity of species to adapt to environmental change.

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is a multilateral treaty concluded at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It aims to address the conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. With 196 contracting Parties, the CBD is virtually universal, yet implementation has been hampered by chronically inadequate funding, weak enforcement mechanisms, persistent tensions between conservation imperatives and development agendas, and the intricate web of inter-connected environmental challenges. Consequently, innovative conservation strategies are urgently required at all levels. In many countries botanic gardens have moved to the forefront of plant conservation, aligning their programmes explicitly with the CBD and, in particular, with its plant conservation initiative, the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (Wyse Jackson et al., 2024). Worldwide there are approximately 2500 botanic gardens and arboreta, of which roughly 150 are designated as "National" or "Royal" and many more have been formally incorporated into national networks; these institutions are distributed across more than 40 countries and territories on six continents (Huang et al., 2018). National Botanic Gardens (NBGs) are established and managed by the state and function as a critical policy instrument for countering biodiversity loss, increasingly placing the conservation of plant diversity at the very centre of their institutional missions.

At the Leaders' Summit of the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD on 12 October 2021, President Xi Jinping announced that China would establish a national system of botanical gardens, beginning with flagship sites in Beijing and Guangzhou. This commitment was formalized in August 2023 when the State Council endorsed the National Botanical Garden System Layout Plan, which designates 14 further candidate gardens in addition to the two already operational, thereby integrating a total of sixteen institutions into the strategic framework. Consequently, the development of NBGs has become a cornerstone of China's national framework for the conservation of biodiversity.

1. The practices of China's NBGs in biodiversity conservation

China harbours more than 39, 000 wild species of vascular plants, almost half of which are endemic, giving the country exceptional floristic richness. Yet habitat loss, climate change, over-exploitation, invasive species and pollution have driven more than 4000 plant species to the brink of extinction; roughly 1200 are now listed as national key protected wild plants, underlining the urgency of conservation action (Wen et al., 2023).

China pursues a twin-track approach to wild-plant conservation: in situ protection within nature reserves, national parks and natural parks (including forest, wetland and desert parks), and ex situ conservation in botanical gardens, nursery stock centres and germplasm banks. About 200 botanical gardens of China collectively cultivate two-thirds of China's flora (Huang et al., 2023) and are pivotal for plant introduction, botanical research and reintroduction/restoration programmes (Chen and Sun, 2018). Fragmented governance and uneven development among gardens have, however, limited their overall effectiveness.

To overcome these constraints China established two NBGs in 2022 and began building a systematic, nationwide conservation network (Ren et al., 2023). China's NBGs are state-owned institutions approved by the State Council through a top-down procedural framework. After weighing national strategic priorities, prevailing climate types, representative vegetation zones, biodiversity-conservation priority areas and the needs of socioeconomic development, the government identified 14 candidate NBGs, in addition to the two already operational, thereby ensuring coverage of China's key biodiversity regions. National standards are being promulgated for the accreditation of new NBGs and for their subsequent performance evaluation; only institutions that meet the prescribed criteria can be designated NBGs, and periodic audits of managerial and operational performance will safeguard the systemic integrity and continuous improvement of the network. By 2035 the network is expected to comprise about 10 NBGs, with the target of achieving ex situ conservation of more than 80% of national key protected wild plants and 70% of China's threatened plant species (Wen et al., 2023).

China's NBGs provide sanctuary for rare and endangered plant species through ex situ conservation while also assistance in the transfer of conservation technologies to other biodiversity hotspots via international collaborations, thereby helping to mitigate the global extinction crisis (Ren and Blackmore, 2023). Having accumulated decades of experience in restoring degraded ecosystems, particularly in controlling desertification, reversing Karst rocky-desertification and rehabilitating mangrove, their technical models now offer replicable, evidence-based solutions for analogous regions worldwide, including the Andean cordillera and the East African savannas. Through the National Plant Germplasm Repository, the NBGs supply critical germplasm resources that underpin global food security and pharmaceutical research, strengthening societal resilience against food shortages, climate change and emerging pandemics. Initiatives such as the Belt and Road Biodiversity Programme further enable China's NBGs to share conservation technologies with developing countries, supporting capacity-building in plant conservation across Southeast Asia and Africa (Jiao et al., 2019).

2. The main functions of China's NBGs

The Main Functions of China's NBGs include ex situ conservation (> 80% national key protected wild plants, > 70% threatened plant species), scientific research, resource collection and utilization, public education and horticulture display (Fig. 1).

2.1. Ex situ conservation

China's botanical gardens currently maintain approximately 29, 000 living accessions held ex situ. Of these, about 15, 000 are native to China, 5957 are Chinese endemics, 2095 are rare or endangered, and 743 are nationally protected wild species, representing 40% of the country's native flora, 37% of its endemic flora, 59% of its rare and endangered taxa and 72% of its nationally protected wild plants, respectively (Wang et al., 2023). NBGs ground their conservation strategies in comprehensive nationwide surveys and have established a hierarchical protection framework that integrates holdings in nurseries, living collections, seed and gene banks, and safeguarded extant populations of target species in natural habitats. Adopting a "one species, one strategy" principle, the NBGs employ a "1 + N" model (one core garden plus multiple satellite sites) to secure key taxa across contrasting climates, habitats and ecosystems (Wen et al., 2023). The initiative embraces research, conservation management and core germplasm holdings, with strategic emphasis on species from unique or under-sampled environments. These activities feed into the National Living Plant Collection Information System, underpinned by a centralized database that is continuously updated through long-term monitoring. Between 2022 and 2024 the newly established Beijing National Botanical Garden and the South China National Botanical Garden in Guangzhou added 2500 and 2449 living plant species, respectively, to their collections. Consistent with the species-area relationship, larger holdings correlate with higher survival rates, underscoring the value of ex situ conservation for maintaining genetic diversity. Many of these species are now being reintroduced to reinforce or reestablish wild populations, especially for these species categorized as having extremely small populations (Sun et al., 2024).

2.2. Scientific research

In addition to ex situ conservation, China's NBGs are at the forefront of botanical science through the establishment of key laboratories, research facilities, comprehensive herbarium collections and long-term field monitoring stations. Research undertaken in these gardens, founded upon their living collections—spans plant systematics and evolution, ecophysiology, genetic improvement and breeding, resource assessment and utilization, biodiversity conservation, conservation and molecular genetics, community ecology, restoration ecology and science communication. Between 2011 and 2018 the 15 gardens affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences alone produced 235 scholarly monographs and 7320 peer-reviewed papers in international journals, approximately half of the global output attributable to botanical gardens during that period (Jiao et al., 2019). Five NBGs have jointly created a state-key laboratory, while the Beijing National Botanical Garden now curates the largest herbarium in Asia. These gardens conduct fundamental research in plant taxonomy, conservation biology, conservation genetics and ecology, and apply this knowledge to the introduction, domestication, artificial propagation and ultimately the reintroduction and reestablishment of threatened species into the wild. Functioning as full-scale research institutes, China's NBGs integrate systematic collecting, conservation management and high-level scientific investigation, thereby advancing both biodiversity conservation and the sustainable use of plant resources. The Wuhan Botanical Garden, for example—through the Sino-Africa Joint Research Centre of the Chinese Academy of Sciences—has led long-term studies of the diversity and evolutionary history of Madagascar's baobabs (genus Adansonia), identified the drivers of their historical population dynamics and devised scientifically robust strategies for their future conservation (Wan et al., 2024).

2.3. Resource collection and utilization

The NBGs will intensify the introduction and domestication of plant groups of global significance, expand the collection and utilization of species with high economic and ecological value, develop novel cultivars, and maximize the potential applications of plant resources. Efforts are concentrated on the conservation, propagation and exploitation of plant diversity for agriculture, forestry, medicine and urban greening. This strategy is branded the "3R" approach (Resource-Research-Resolution) and underpins ecological restoration, urban biodiversity enhancement, domestic horticulture and the sustainable use of resources. The Nanjing Botanical Garden, for example, maintains 552 accessions of Lycoris germplasm that collectively represent every known species in the genus. Using a modular self-assembled plant P450 functional expression platform, the Garden has achieved high-efficiency de-novo synthesis of p-hydroxycinnamic acid, the key intermediate for Amaryllidaceae alkaloids. This innovation has shortened production cycles, reduced costs and improved the sustainability of plant resource utilization (Yao et al., 2025).

2.4. Public education

China's NBGs deliver an extensive public-service portfolio that includes horticultural training, curriculum-linked lectures and school programmes, eco-tourism activities and nationwide outreach campaigns, all designed to deepen public understanding of biodiversity and the life sciences. Each garden maintains dedicated interpretation centres, interactive trails and science-communication teams, and produces popular books, leaflets and digital media for non-specialist audiences. For example, the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden runs regular professional development workshops for environmental educators that strengthen both ecological content knowledge and science-communication skills, thereby ensuring that guided walks and exhibits are engaging and pedagogically robust for visitors of all ages, with particular emphasis on children and young adults. Campaigns for public education are organized, such as the "ONEs" initiative (a public awareness activity that encourages people to engage in conservation efforts on plant species), alongside collaborations with schools and scientific institutions to enhance public participation and create immersive spaces for experiencing nature.

2.5. Horticulture display

China's NBGs integrate ex situ conservation with the principle "artificial, yet apparently natural", thereby creating scientifically curated landscapes that simultaneously embody traditional culture and aesthetic value. By inter-weaving four dimensions, i.e., "form" (classical horticultural architecture), "essence" (philosophical tenets), "utility" (ecosystem services) and "transmission" (cultural immersion), the gardens function as living ecological museums that epitomise "harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature". Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, inspired by the Taoist ideal of the "Peach-Blossom Spring" as a realm of reclusion, moulds its design around pre-existing landforms to fashion waterfalls, natural escarpments, elevated boardwalks and water-curtain grottoes that are integrated intimately with the site's topography. Through the strategic use and planting of indigenous flora, the garden has ecologically rehabilitated century-old mining scars, suffusing the reclaimed landscape with the compositional aesthetics and contemplative ambience of traditional Chinese landscape painting. This integrative approach not only perpetuates the Chinese cultural identity but also offers a replicable framework for advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through biocultural stewardship.

2.6. Living plant collections as the integrative nexus for key functions

Through curated and comprehensively documented living collections, China's NBGs systematically conserve the nation's key protected wild plants and threatened species, transforming these repositories into integrated platforms for scientific inquiry. The collections underpin cutting-edge research in plant taxonomy, safeguard genomic diversity, enable continued adaptive evolution and provide insight into species' resilience under anthropogenic environmental pressures. Simultaneously, they function as germplasm reservoirs that drive innovation in crop resilience, traditional medicine, ecological restoration and sustainable urban landscaping. By integrating classical Chinese landscape architecture with contemporary conservation narratives, the living collections create dynamic spaces in which visitors encounter both traditional ecological wisdom and modern sustainability principles. Operating within a "Collection–Research–Utilization–Display" framework, NBGs exemplify how ex situ conservation and public engagement can synergistically advance biodiversity conservation and green innovation.

The management of living collections is of paramount importance for NBGs. Several global databases related to ex situ plant conservation already exist, such as PlantSearch (https://plantsearch.bgci.org/) and GBIF (https://www.gbif.org/), as well as regional or national-level databases like GardenSearch (https://gardensearch.bgci.org/), and the Atlas of Living Australia (https://www.ala.org.au/), in addition to databases developed by individual botanical gardens, such as the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew's Living Collection Catalogue and the Missouri Botanical Garden's Living Collections Management System (LCMS) (https://www.livingcollections.org/). These examples provide valuable references for the management of living collections in China's NBGs. Building on existing databases like the Plant Information Management System (PIMS), China will establish a living plant information management system for the NBG network. This system will be used to allocate conservation tasks, identify conservation gaps, and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation efforts.

3. Integrated management of ex situ and in situ conservation

Alongside the NBGs, China has designated five National Parks (NPs) that collectively protect 230, 000 km² and harbour nearly 30% of the country's terrestrial key protected wild species (Zhao, 2022). The National Park Spatial Layout Plan targets 49 parks by 2035, creating the world's largest national-park system and supporting in situ conservation for more than 29, 000 species of higher plants (Zhao, 2022). While the parks provide core habitat and assisted-reintroduction sites for rare and endangered taxa, the gardens supply the plant material, seed banks and technical expertise required for ecological restoration and species recovery within the parks, thereby reinforcing a complementary two-pronged conservation strategy that demonstrably increases survival prospects. Substantial collaborative opportunities exist between NBGs and NPs in plant taxonomy, habitat rehabilitation and restoration, species recovery programmes and climate change adaptation. A joint data platform is under development that will give both communities seamless access to herbarium vouchers, living collections and long-term ecological datasets. By further combining the eco-tourism assets of the parks with the public-education resources of the gardens, an integrated nature-education framework is emerging that offers immersive experiences for visitors and local schools alike. Crucially, the siting of every new NBG is explicitly aligned with one or more neighbouring NPs; each garden's construction plan must identify its partner park(s) and detail mechanisms for shared research, joint monitoring and reciprocal staff exchanges, thereby knitting together regional biodiversity-conservation networks. Moreover, in contrast to the arrangements found in many countries, both NPs and NBGs in China fall under the remit of the same government department. This unique administrative structure is being leveraged through harmonized policies, common technical guidelines and jointly funded research projects, deepening integration between the two systems and simultaneously enhancing biodiversity conservation, scientific research, environmental education, sustainable eco-tourism and community development.

5. Towards a sustainable future

The development of Chinese botanical gardens has evolved from an initial emphasis on plant resource utilization, science education and public recreation to a balanced portfolio that integrates conservation, research, sustainable use and environmental awareness, mirroring the trajectory of China's socio-economic transformation. China now shares with the wider world common challenges over food security, water scarcity, energy shortages, health risks and climate change; technology alone, however, will not solve all of these problems. A national network of NBGs is therefore essential to weave together systematic wild plant collection, documentation and preservation, comprehensive conservation, high level research and sustainable utilization, thereby fostering the integrated development of society, nature and people and ultimately delivering the Sustainable Development Goals.

In planning the NBG system the Chinese government has synthesized multiple strategic considerations: key national initiatives, socioeconomic service needs, dominant climate zones, the distribution of characteristic vegetation belts and priority areas for biodiversity conservation. Building on the existing spatial pattern of botanical gardens and associated research infrastructure, a nationally representative network with optimized spatial configuration and complementary functions is being established under admission criteria that encompass national representativeness, scientific systematicity and public benefit.

Amid accelerating global climate change and the worldwide degradation of ecosystem services, the "Garden Earth" concept has emerged as a spatial governance framework for sustainable development (Cannon and Kua, 2017; Ren and Blackmore, 2023). Comparative studies reveal that while botanic gardens in Europe and North America retain their traditional research roles, they have evolved dual-track models that integrate biodiversity conservation with environmental education. By contrast, institutions in many developing countries (constrained by limited research capacity) concentrate on applied priorities such as the ex situ conservation of threatened species, the exploitation of economically valuable plants and science popularization. China's National Botanical Gardens propose a five-dimensional, synergistic development framework (conservation-research-utilization-popularization-display) that operationalizes the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity. By doing so, the framework will effectively mitigate biodiversity loss and unsustainable development pressures, providing institutional safeguards for advancing ecological civilization and realizing the vision of a "Community of Life for Man and Nature".

Aligned with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, human demands evolve sequentially from survival and security (food, shelter, safety) to spiritual aspirations (esteem, self-actualization). In ecological-economics terms, plant diversity undergoes value transformation through four ecosystem service functions: provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural. By systematically collecting, documenting, preserving and utilizing plant germplasm resources, China's NBGs couple demand with supply across all four service categories, demonstrating that a coherent botanical garden system can optimize the flow of ecosystem services and satisfy humanity's rising expectations for high-quality living standards and ecological well-being.

(1) Material Provisioning: Supplying strategic biological resources including economically valuable plant resources, including edible plants, medicinal compounds, ornamental plants and novel energy crops.

(2) Ecological Regulation: Enhancing habitat quality through phytoremediation processes such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation appropriate ecological restoration models.

(3) Cultural Service: Creating ecological recreational spaces and preserving plant-related intangible cultural heritage.

(4) Spiritual Fulfillment: Elevating public ecological literacy through the aesthetic value of plants.

The development of China's NBGs represents an exciting and important new state-supported model that inherently constitutes a multiscale, multifunctional biocultural complex system, whose developmental trajectory reflects the deep integration of ecological holism and the SDGs. Future research should prioritize quantitative assessments of the system's ecological connectivity and cultural service as a feed-back mechanism to enhance its governance efficacy as "green infrastructure."

Acknowledgement

We are greatly thankful to all experts involved in the National Botanical Garden System Layout Plan. We sincerely thank Hongwen Huang, Weibang Sun and Jingping Liao for their valuable advice, English editing and critically generous reviewing this manuscript. This work is supported by the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation-Special Program on Biodiversity (2023B0303050001).

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Tuo He: Conceptualization, Writing-original draft, Visualization. Zhihua Zhou: Conceptualization, Supervisi on, Writing-review & editing. Hui Dong: Writing-review. Liangchen Yuan: Writing-review. Lixin Guo: Writing-review. Yongteng Wang: Writing-review. Miaomiao Zheng: Writing-review, Visualization. Yalong Qin: Writing-review. Yufeng Gu: Writing-review. Peter Wyse Jackson: Writing-review & editing. Hai Ren: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing-review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.