The Botanist: BCGI Partnership

bgci partnership

Saving plants together

bgci partnership

Saving plants together

Since The Botanist’s inception more than a decade ago, biodiversity and conservation have been front of our mind as we sustainably forage the 22 wild Islay botanicals for our gin. This passion for plants led us to start The Botanist Foundation in 2015, with the aim of working with the people of Islay to further the understanding and conservation of the island’s biodiversity.

In 2020, the foundation widened its scope by partnering with Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), the largest plant conservation network in the world, working to preventing plant species extinctions and promote sustainability. They represent 600 gardens in 100 countries. Through funding their Global Botanic Garden Fund, a resource that gives vital grants to gardens in biodiversity hotspots and developing countries, the foundation has supported biodiversity and conservation across five continents.

THE BOTANIST ISLAY DRY GIN

In 2022, The Botanist Foundation supported:

- FSIG Forest Science Institute, Vietnam: conserving wild camelias;
- Cincinatti Zoo and Botanical Gardens: an exploration into cloning and cryo-preservation of Cycads
- Real Jardin Botanico, Madrid: conservation of endangered native bulbs.
- Hermanus Botanical Society, Western Cape, South Africa: supporting the restoration of a garden that promotes sensory immersion and holistic healing.

THE BOTANIST ISLAY DRY GIN

In previous years we supported projects such as conserving rare bulb plants in the Cape in South Africa, saving critically endangered - and hard to reach - native species in a tropical botanical garden in Kaua'i, Hawai'i; restoring a cloud forest sanctuary in Mexico and helping a partnership between two alpine-specialist gardens in Uganda and Italy, aiming to share learning about seed conservation. We've helped a medicinal plant sanctuary in Canada; the conservation of rare magnolias in San Francisco and the conservation of critically endangered plants of the Western Ghats, India.

With as many as 40% of the world’s plants threatened with extinction, everyone has a
role to play in this vital work. You can directly help to support by purchasing The Botanist Plant Conservation Edition. For each bottle sold, we donate £5 to the vital work being done by @yourbgci.