Why such a network
To keep botany alive
Botany does not just involve admiring the numerous plants present in nature. Indeed, botany is also and above all a fundamental science necessary for many other disciplines such as agriculture, the food industry, pharmacology, biotechnologies, ecology, environmental conservation, etc.
However, in France, the abandonment of fundamental or applied botany (the study of flora, vegetation, phytoecology, systematics, etc.) is now a fact at all levels of education and research as well as in the government authorities.
Botany, in France, to survive and develop, must therefore be taken care of by botanists themselves, who are today still too dispersed and not connected to each other. The setting up of collective projects can only be realised if people interested in botany group together, uniting their knowledge and efforts.
The aims of the network
The Tela Botanica network contributes to bringing together all francophone botanists in order to:
- promote the diffusion and popularization of botanical knowledge,
- increase the density and the efficiency of communications and connections between botanists, notably in facilitating the emergence of collective projects,
- increase the representation of francophone botanists to regional, national, European and international authorities,
- create new vocations by helping amateur naturalists to familiarize themselves with the vegetal world.
Its mission is to organize a space of creation, communication and exchange to help all francophone botanists, and, more generally anybody interested by the vegetal world within an ethic of respect for nature, mankind and its environment.
Its field of action
Tela Botanica’s field of action concerns people, associations, public or private organisms, wishing to set up collective projects (in French) about:
- the development and promotion of botany
- the education and initiation to the vegetal world,
- the knowledge of wild flora and setting up of flora surveys
- the protection of environments and habitats, the management of natural areas,
- the publication of books/works, catalogues, CD-rom and other media about botany,
- the setting up of databases and mapping systems about flora and vegetation,
- the sharing of knowledge and competences related to the vegetal world,
- and any other related activities.
The geographic range of the network mainly encompasses francophone countries.
Reference documents:
> The founding declaration (PDF, french, 1 page, 17 Ko)
> The network charter (PDF, french, 8 pages, 49 Ko)
> The association statutes (PDF, french, 4 pages, 28 Ko)
Archive documents:
> Study of the Tela Botanica network - 2007 (PDF, french)
> Study of the network functioning after three years of activity – December 2002 (PDF, french, 25 pages, 306Ko)
> Presentation of the Tela Botanica network - February 2001 (PDF, french, 3 pages, 20 Ko)
> Questions and answers about the setting up of Tela Botanica - May 2000 (PDF, french, 2 pages, 13 Ko)
