Thanks to a generous legacy left to the Garden, Chilean botany students will be given the chance to study in Edinburgh. Martin Gardner, RBGE's expert in the flora of Chile, and his Chilean collaborators, have just set up a unique new scholarship for botany students from the Universidad de Austral in Valdivia, Chile, to take the MSc Course in Plant Taxonomy at Edinburgh.
"Young people are the future," says Martin. "It might sound like a cliché. But the reality is that training local students is the most important element of any long-term conservation effort in the developing world."
The new scholarship, awarded once every two years, will cover fees for the one-year MSc course, and will also fund one year's salary for the student back home in Chile. The scholarship will take on its first student in October next year.
"Chile has a desperate shortage of trained botanical staff. There is plenty to do but very little money to employ graduates," explains Martin. "By funding a year's salary we can get them to start working. In time, they will hopefully staff a new conservation monitoring unit at the Universidad de Austral, Valdivia - provided funds can be found to establish the unit."
The new scholarship has been made possible thanks to a generous legacy. The late Catherine Olver, a former librarian at the University of Reading, was a great admirer of the Garden's efforts in global conservation; and was particularly fond of Chile, which she visited with Martin Gardner in the late 1990s. "Towards the end of her illness she decided to bequeath a generous £200,000 to the Garden towards capacity building in Chile," says Martin. "We are hoping this sum, invested wisely, will fund the scholarship for many decades to come. Needless to say it will change many lives, and will make a real difference to the future of Chilean plant conservation."
"Catherine's decision is a wonderful example of how a legacy left to the Garden can help make things happen," says Becky Govier, co-ordinator of RBGE's Legacy Programme. "But legacies don't just fund new projects, they are essential in underpinning our on-going activities too. As we increasingly seek new avenues of funding, legacies bequeathed to RBGE are playing an ever more important role."
If you would like to know more about leaving a legacy, or any other opportunities for giving, please contact Becky Govier, tel. 0131 248 2866 or email b.govier@rbge.org.uk