Integration of Conservation Strategies of Plant Genetic ... - Genres

the Drawno NPN, the Tucholskie Forest, the Odra River Valley, the Kampinos NP and the Orawa
peat marshes (Celinski, Denisiuk, 1993).
The nature reserves cover areas of up to, 500 ha, and protect one or more ecosystems, which
have been only slightly degraded by man. In 1992 there were 1.035 nature reserves in Poland, in
which the dominating ecosystems are forests and meadows, water and peat bogs.
Scenic parks (82 in 1992) aim at the conservation, popularization and dissemination of natural,
historical or cultural values under the conditions of economic management.
The areas of protected landscape, characteristic of a given region, (forests, river valleys, seaside,
lakelands), play a significant role in tourism, due to their natural value. In 1992 there were 251
areas of protected landscape in Poland. They represent various types ecosystems, and their
management should ensure relative ecological balance on the natural systems.
So far, the in situ conservation is the most frequent, the most officient cheapest means of
counteracting the degradation of flora. However, only simultaneous in situ and ex situ
conservation will preserve valuable elemnts of our flora.
Ex situ conservation done in botanical garden aims at preserving species under garden conditions
and consequently, by learning their biology and propagation methods, at reintroduction the
species into natural habitat.
Steadily lengthening "red lists" of endangered plants have led to the incerased intensity of
botanical gardens work on active conservation of the listed species. Besides the research
on two rare species of the Polish flora - Corydalis pumila and Gagea spathacea - Botanical
Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Powsin does observation of endangered plant
species of deciduous forest habitats that belong to the Polish lowlands flora. The plants gathered
in the Garden have documented origin form natural habitats, which will make possible their
reintroduction in the case of their extinction in nature. Other Polish botanical gardens under take
similar tasks, with proper consideration given to local conditions. Among others, the Botanical
Garden of Warsaw University is concerned with the flora of north-eastern Poland, the BG of the
Poznan University does work on flora of north-western Poland (mainly xerophytes), one of the
interests of the BG of the Maria Sklodowska-Curie University in Lublin is the flora of the Lublin
region and southern Poland; Department of Physiography and Arboretum in Bolestraszyce near
Przemysl covers the plants of south-eastern Poland. The Botanical Garden of Wroclaw University
conducts research on aquatic and swamp plants and on orchids, mainly of the Lower Silesia
region. A positive examples of active ex situ conservation of endangered plant species is the
preservation of the endemic species Cochlearia polonica (extinc in natural habitat) in the
Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Powsin, or acquiring the knowledge of
biology and cultivation methods of the endangered Trapa natans in the Bolestraszyce Arboretum.
In vitro propagation and preservation of endangered plant species are two other methods of active
conservation of the world genetic resources. In Poland the research is carried on the development
of the regeneration systems of the protected species, which is the basis of in vitro storage for a
long-term period. The Botanical Garden in Wroclaw has developed methods of vegetative
propagation of plants of the Droseraceae and Orchidaceae families (Kukulczanka et al., 1984,
1989).