Feature Interview

An influencer, and an agent of change

Rebecca Harcourt interviews Dr Paul Smith, Secretary General of Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

I was lucky enough to chat to Paul face-to-face while at the Global Botanic Gardens Congress in Melbourne. He told me how a series of serendipitous coincidences led him from Central Dr Paul Smith Africa to Kew, and shared his thoughts on how individuals and individual botanic gardens, as well as the global botanic garden community, can be influencers and agents of change.

What is your earliest memory of plants and how did your interest in them evolve?

From the age of two I grew up in newly independent Zambia, Central Africa. It had a big impact on me. I lived almost entirely outside, barefoot in the bush. My earliest memories of plants are of Poinsettia Euphorbia pulcherrima and climbing up Pawpaw trees Carica papaya.

After boarding school in Botswana, where at one point I was the only white boy in the boys’ boarding house, I went to university in the UK. That was a big shock. At the end of my degree in microbiology/ biochemistry I realised I didn’t want to spend life in a lab, so I headed back to Zambia to work as a walking safari guide. On the day I arrived in the Luangwa Valley, 25 May 1986, I had a light-bulb moment where I knew I wanted to be a plant ecologist. The valley was full of magnificent trees, such as African Ebony Diospyros mespiliformis and African Winterthorn Faidherbia albida, yet there was very little information about them.

A young Paul in Zambia, celebrating the fourth anniversary of Independence Day, 1968.

There were lots of field guides on birds and animals but nothing on plants. So, on my walking safaris I wrote a field guide to the trees and shrubs. The Luangwa Valley national parks are among the best national parks in the world – they have an incredible density and diversity of game because of the soils and vegetation.

With no formal botany training but because I’d written the field guide, I was given the opportunity to carry out a vegetation survey of North Luangwa National Park, which had never been surveyed. I was given a Landcruiser, a rifle, an assistant − and 4,500 square kilometres to map. I collected over 1,000 plant species and set up 350 permanent ground plots. Incidentally, I was back there in July this year and found some plots with labels I’d put on 29 years earlier!

Paul as a safari guide with Moto, a pet baby elephant.

That survey work took me to Kew ultimately, because a lot of the specimens couldn’t be identified, even in the regional herbaria. This coincided with the opportunity to work on an ecological survey of Zambia in another amazing coincidence. My mother had met a man at her church in Bristol, whose dad used to work in Zambia, and he got in touch. The dad was 85-year-old Colin Trapnell, who between 1932 and 1943 had walked thousands of miles to carry out the first ecological survey of Northern Rhodesia, as it was then. He had 27 original notebooks, which he said he would pay me to transcribe. Kew Gardens was also very keen to see them published, so I got a three-year stint there. The notebooks were published by Kew in 2002 when Colin was in his mid-90s.

A mopane tree Paul tagged in 1993, still intact in 2022.

They describe the traditional agricultural methods, such as the rotation schedules and the old crop varieties, before the introduction of hybrid maize. Colin, one of Africa’s first ecologists, understood that the Indigenous people knew their own soils and plants, and was ahead of his time in recording this type of information. When the infamous groundnut scheme was introduced in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) after WWII (to bring soldier settlers in and grow peanuts for oil), he said it would not work because the soils are unsuitable. He lost his job because of this, but he was right. The scheme was described in 1953 as ‘the worst fiasco in recent British colonial history.’

Colin Trapnell (right) and Neil Clothier on ulendo (expedition) in 1933.

As the Secretary General of BGCI, tell us about your aspirations for the outcome of this Congress

There are two outcomes I would like to see. The first is using our influence for action. For example, there’s a lot of global inequity. At BGCI’s International Advisory Council meeting during the Congress, we heard from Zac Magombo from the National Herbarium and Botanic Garden in Malawi. They have very basic needs in setting up three botanic gardens there and need a lot of technical and financial support. We’re a conduit for that support.

Paul and Colin Trapnell in 2001. The notebooks were published as two 700-page volumes, and one volume of maps, entitled Ecological Survey of Zambia: The Traverse Records of C. G. Trapnell 1932-43.

They need hands-on help with, for example, landscape design, setting up irrigation systems and collections policies, which requires commitment. It’s relatively easy to raise money for conservation but for basics like that it’s very hard. That’s why we need to work much more effectively as a community.

Secondly, I would like to see us rapidly moving away from telling people there’s a problem and change the narrative to tell them what we’re doing to solve the problem. Otherwise, it’s overwhelming. There’s quite a big movement to do this in conservation, such as the IUCN’s Reverse the Red movement. There are success stories, and we can scale them up. We need to spread this optimism as a movement within our own sector and beyond, to empower people to believe they can do something to help.

Most of Australia’s botanic gardens are small, modestly resourced regional gardens – what role do you see these gardens playing in the global agenda for botanic gardens?

Most gardens are small, even within BGCI. It’s down to individuals. Everyone can do something. We’ve all got the same set of global problems that need to be tackled locally. At this Congress we’ve heard examples from Ballarat, where they’re taking on the conservation of just a few species, but that’s still significant. Noone else can do this, so there’s a responsibility.

Working to save a species is such a great thing to do with your life – anybody can do it – particularly if you have a botanic garden. One advantage of botanic gardens is that they are long-term undertakings so can take on long-lived species, such as trees.

Just take something on − it doesn’t have to be too ambitious − as a starting point.

Is there potential for BGANZ to support a wider regional network, for example, throughout Oceania?

There is potential, in places like Papua New Guinea and Samoa. You could convene a workshop to look at, for example, needs assessments, but it must be handled sensitively. There are always political sensitivities, but any support you can provide in that geographical area would be helpful. It doesn’t need to include everyone at once, it can build up over time.

What is your favourite plant?

The Mopane Tree Colophospermum mopane. It grows in Zambia, often almost like a monoculture. When it grows in the right soils it’s called Cathedral Mopane, as it has trunks that form an almost cathedral-like canopy. It has beautiful autumn foliage and unusual fruits for a legume. They are indehiscent but kidney-shaped and quite resinous. It’s sometimes called the turpentine tree because it produces a resin that is used as a firelighter. It is also the best firewood in Africa. It burns very slowly, like a cigarette, and you can see the outline of the burned trees from the air. It’s also a great browse species − elephants love it − it’s a multipurpose tree.

What is your favourite botanic garden?

I’m not allowed to say! I have one but it’s a secret.

What are you currently reading/listening to/ watching that enriches your life?

I’m reading Tim Entwisle’s autobiography, of course!

Mopane woodland (early dry season).

Mopane woodland (late dry season).

Mopane trees burned in the dry season. The white shapes are ash. Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana.

Credit: Richard du Toit, www.richarddutoit.com.

Paul’s new book, Trees: From Root to Leaf, has just been published by Thames & Hudson. If you would like to review it for our next issue, please email media@bganz.org.au.