10/7/2020 9:29:00 AM The Levy Preserve/Bahamas National Trust became the 42nd institutional partner of the World Flora Online (WFO), an open-access web-based compendium of the world’s 400,000 species of vascular plants and mosses. Through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the Preserve’s plant data is now integrated within the larger WFO...
9/23/2020 10:03:00 AM Global Strategy for Plant Conservation succeeds in aligning actions to protect plant diversity around the world • Success realised in aligning actions by world’s botanist and plant protection community through shared set of principles and objectives.• While unlikely that all targets will be achieved by 2020, clear that...
6/24/2020 5:41:47 PM After attaining the Accredited Botanic Garden award just over a year ago, the Levy Preserve adds another feather to its cap with the latest distinction issued by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) – that of Accredited Conservation Practitioner. This second tier of accreditation evaluates a...
4/22/2020 10:43:42 AM In November 2019, when it was first documented in The Bahamas, Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) – a newly emergent marine epidemic with no cure- has rapidly spread in five months over 20 percent of coral reefs in Grand Bahama’s National Parks. The national parks that are affected include Peterson Cay […]
1/2/2020 12:02:00 PM Dr. Ethan Freid attended a meeting of regional garden and conservation leaders from the Caribbean and Central America Garden Network held at Naples Botanical Garden (NBG). The focus of the sessions was to work to further develop the regional strategy for plant conservation, identify regional needs, and prioritize future...
10/1/2019 3:34:08 AM The National Post Office released a new stamp series that highlights Bahamian endemic plant species. The twenty stamps range from five-cent to ten-dollar denominations and include single-island endemics Symphyotrichum lucayanum (known only from Grand Bahama) and Euphorbia longinsulicola (found only on...
9/17/2019 5:48:00 PM In September the Leon Levy Preserve hosted three Cuban botanists for a four-day Redlisting session evaluating shared plant species between Cuba and The Bahamas. Dr. Ramona Oviedo Prieto, Dr. Eldis Rafael Becquer Granados and Jose Luis Gomez Hechavarria collaborated with Dr. Freid assessing 24 shared species which were...
6/17/2019 8:44:00 AM In June, the Levy Preserve supported Bahamas Plastic Movement in its World Ocean’s Day beach cleanup. Dozens of students, residents and partner organizations canvassed a mile of Sky Beach collecting all sorts of plastics. Within 30 minutes, over 2,000 pieces of plastic had been collected including fishing ropes and nets,...
4/5/2019 12:02:55 PM In April 2019 the Leon Levy Preserve became the first institution in The Bahamas to be designated a BGCI accredited botanic garden. Issued by Botanic Gardens Conservation International this tier of accreditation recognizes institutions for their achievements in plant conservation. Criteria for accreditation included...
1/31/2019 9:01:12 AM The Preserve hosted a small team of explorers led by Dr. Eric Cole, Professor of Biology at St. Olaf College in Minnesota with research interests in marine invertebrates. The team also consisted of John Campion (SCUBA instructor), Karna Campion (botany enthusiast) and Dr. Kenneth Hobson, (Associate Professor,...