Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/08/10
By: Wu Po-wei and Ko Lin, CNA staff writers

A growing number of plant species are going extinct because of climate change, posing a serious threat to the planet. Once they are gone, they are lost forever.

Or maybe not.

A Taiwanese nongovernmental organization, the Dr. Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Center (KBCC), has quietly sought to combat the trend through its dedication to conserving plants, hoping ultimately to reintroduce endangered species into the wild.

The KBCC currently has a total of 33,309 plant species, mostly tropical and sub-tropical, making it the world's largest plant repository in terms of varieties, said Li Chia-wei (李家維), who heads the Pingtung County-based plant shelter.

According to Li, the Royal Botanic Gardens in the United Kingdom currently has about 18,000 species, the Missouri Botanical Garden in the United States has 17,500, and the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden in China's Yunnan Province 13,000.    [FULL  STORY]