Kew Gardens’ plants of Empire must return to ‘country of origin’, says botanist
Kew Gardens should return plants taken from former British colonies during the days of the Empire, a botanist has claimed.
Prof Muthama Muasya from the University of Cape Town, who has discovered more than 100 new plant species, said Kew should return plant specimens if it could not handle “the weight of custodianship”.
Prof Muasya said some of Kew’s seven-million-strong collection are no longer available in their countries of origin, including species that are now extinct.
He claimed the Kew herbarium had “historical baggage” from “collecting during the time of the Empire” when material was “just taken”.
Prof Muasya told The Times: “My issue is that Kew management need to most strongly acknowledge that the collection at Kew most represents material from the rest of the world, a very small proportion being British flora, and there is a component of those materials which are perhaps more precious to the countries of origin and need to be accessible to those people.”
He added: “The reason that Kew is holding on to them is that they have a value now, an intangible value, and a value for tomorrow.
“The specimens are a source of information on where plants came from, DNA and other scientific uses, those specimens might have uses we don’t know. Kew isn’t the only one who can look at those uses, countries of origin equally can do this.”
In 2020 Kew acknowledged its colonial roots and pledged to “decolonise” in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, sparking wider critiques of the “colonial roots” of species such as wisteria.
It prompted Alan Titchmarsh to say Kew should stop “beating themselves up” over what has happened in the past, stating that attempting to “make mileage” out of historical wrongs is not helpful in the present day.
The author and former Gardeners’ World presenter argued that people should accept that the values of the previous generation were different, and they should stop “punishing a memory” of the past.
Kew is also governed by the National Heritage Act 1983, which would limit trustees’ ability to repatriate material in their collection.
The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, west London, has plans to move its herbarium to Thames Valley Science Park. Kew said specimens will be better protected against risks and the collection will have more space to expand.
Kew has cited a duty to care for the collection as part of the reasoning behind the move.
Dr Alan Paton, head of science collections of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew said: “A modern, state-of-the-art herbarium for our world-leading collection will address many of the concerns raised by Prof Muasya.
“The entire collection will be fully accessible to staff, students and visiting researchers, as it is now. We firmly believe in the importance of global taxonomic research and training to tackle the planetary emergency, and we highly value the central role the collections play in our work. Critical to the success of this move will be strengthening our longstanding overseas partnerships with institutions and scientists in over 100 countries.”
