The Chilean Hillside, Benmore
The International Conifer Conservation Programme has developed a network of ‘safe sites’ most of which are located in the British Isles (see Map below). The Programme works with over 200 sites where 15000 individual conifers representing 155 conifer taxa, 95 of which are threatened. Sourcing the plants is carried out in collaboration with in-country partners and conducted in a manner that is careful to ensure wild populations are not placed at additional risk.
The ex situ conservation sites mainly consist of private landowners, but also take in public gardens, golf courses and in one case a monastery (Glenstall Abbey in Ireland). Although the Programme works with botanic gardens, it is often the case that space is at a premium; hence in such sites only small numbers of conifers have been used. The exception being the Benmore Botanic Garden (one of three regional gardens of the RBGE) which extends to 49 hectares and has one of the biggest collections of species conifers in the world. The main criteria used for adopting ‘safe sites’ is that they should have a degree of longevity of future tenure together with a high standard of horticultural expertise to manage the trees. Our preference is to work with sites which have sufficinet space to allow the planting of large breeding populations. Working in collaboartion with the Perthishire Conifer Conservation Programme (PCCP) and the National Tree Collection of Scotland (NTCS) in partnership with Forestry Commission Scotland and the Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust, this has given access to some relatively large areas of forestry land whereby large numbers of conifers have been planted.
 | Abies cilicica subsp. cilicica Origin: Turkey Number of sites: 31 Number of genotypes: 133 |
 | Origin: Morocco Number of sites: 16 Number of genotypes: 430 |
 | Origin: Argentina and Chile Number of sites: 46 Number of genotypes: 142 |
 | Origin: Morocco Number of sites: 22 Number of genotypes: 380 |
 | Cedrus libaniOrigin: Lebanon Number of sites: 50 Number of genotypes: 336 |
 | Fitzroya cupressoidesOrigin: Chile Number of sites: 71 Number of genotypes: 103 Number of plants: 415 |
 | Picea omorikaOrigin: Bosnia, Herzegovina and Serbia Number of sites: 640 Number of genotypes: 1100 |
 | Pilgerodendron uviferumOrigin: Chile Number of sites: 44 Number of genotypes: 155 Number of plants: 270 |
 | Podocarpus salignusOrigin: Chile Number of sites: 62 Number of genotypes: 670 |
 | Prumnopitys andinaOrigin: Chile Number of sites: 78 Number of genotypes: 425 Number of plants: 720 |
 | Taiwania cryptomerioidesOrigin: Taiwan Number of sites: 32 Number of genotypes: 247 |
 | Xanthocyparis vietnamensisOrigin: China Number of sites: 31 Number of genotypes: 104 |