There are two main programs of botanical conservation at The Levy Preserve: Online Digital Flora and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
The longest-running program has been documenting the Flora of the Lucayan Archipelago and Eleuthera in digital, living, and herbarium collections.
The underpinning of the Preserve’s plant conservation work is the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for The Bahamas.
Flora of the Lucayan Archipelago (The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands)
The Preserve has created an online digital flora that is searchable by scientific or common name on the Levy Preserve website. For each species, there is a scientific description as well as images of flowers, fruits, leaves, and bark. Of the 1400 vascular plant species known to the archipelago over 700 (50 % of the flora) descriptions have been completed and uploaded to this site.
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) & The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) is the internationally recognized framework through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that signatory countries look to implement to prevent the loss of plant biodiversity. The GSPC is a subsection within the CBD and became an official fully incorporated portion of the CBD in 2002.
The Convention on Biological Diversity is an international agreement that began in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The agreement focuses on maintaining and securing national biodiversity with three goals: the first goal is the conservation of biological diversity, the second is the sustainable use of resources and the third about equitable distribution of the benefits of biodiversity.
The Bahamas became a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on December 29, 1993, and is obligated under the CBD to implement policy that supports the objectives and targets of the CBD. The first meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) was held in Nassau in 1994.
The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) has been expanding the number of parks throughout the country and, in doing so, supports several GSPC targets. Of the 16 targets, eight are addressed directly by the LLNPP and have made progress toward completion. Three are being directly addressed by the BNT at the Parks and Science level yet require additional analysis/development and an additional five that are/need to be addressed at a higher national governmental level. Targets 7, 14, and 16 are being implemented both by the LLNPP and the BNT.