Management at Kew claim that voluntary staff had not been banned or suspended for speaking out on the move of the herbarium. One of those suspended voluntary staff, Charlie Jervoise-Clarke, replied: 

“Despite Kew’s protestations that I’ve been banned for some breach of its code of conduct, the reality is that my 'breach' consists of my audacity in disagreeing with the director’s insane proposal” (Private Eye, No.1608) 

Science magazine (with Nature the most prestigious global journal for science), reported this week: 

 “Botanists fight removal of plant specimens from one of the world’s most spectacular gardens”  https://www.science.org/content/article/botanists-fight-removal-of-plant-specimens-from-one-of-worlds-most-spectacular-gardens        

 Excerpts: “Pamela Soltis, a botanist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, agrees that a split would be detrimental. “The quality of the science would definitely suffer.” Matthew Jebb, director of the National Botanic Gardens in Ireland, signed the petition and calls the plan “an astonishingly foolish thing to do...”

“…many scientists decry what they see as lack of transparency. “It’s outrageous what’s going on,” says Robert Scotland, a plant taxonomist at the University of Oxford. “How can you have an adult, reasoned discussion about this, when it’s all taking place behind closed doors?”

Right on Kew (Quentin Wheeler)

The best reporting and analysis yet of the consequences of this intention to move is by famous US biologist Quentin Wheeler in his open access podcast “Right on Kew”: 'Physically separating researchers from collections is among the worst things we could possibly do at this moment in time.’ Full podcast in his Species Hall of Fame series here:

https://qwheeler.substack.com/p/right-on-kew#details           Please do listen

Please help us to stop this crazy plan of relocation and isolation of Kew Herbarium, before the final decision is made by the RBG, Kew Trustees in December, with signatures and comments on the petition and share it with others so we bring more attention to it. For further updates also follow us on Twitter (X), Facebook or Instagram @KewKeepers. 

If you live in the UK, please contact your MP to raise your concerns (see previous updates for steps on how to do this). 

Please help us avoid this calamity and help us focus our efforts on describing the world's plant species for their effective conservation, before they become extinct.

Curator Botanist savekewherbarium@gmail.com