Objective and role of the CCVS

Every year, a lot of species and varieties disappear forever or are close to disappearing.

The Conservatoire des Collections Végétales Spécialisées (CCVS), a non-profit organization, has been created in 1989 by a group of scientists and plant enthusiasts, in order to gather all those who wish to work against the disappearance of plants in nature and in our gardens, and to preserve biodiversity.

The CCVS has established a Chart of Collections and thus works with holders of plant collections (public or private), amateurs, nursery gardeners, horticulturists, professionals working for government, educational institutions and botanical gardens.

The major task of the CCVS is to register and evaluate the botanical and horticultural collections with two levels of recognition: "CCVS Agreed Collection" and "CCVS National Collection", depending on the size of the collection, the number of taxa, the origin of the plants, the respect of the nomenclature, the conservation of the collection, etc.

A new collection is visited by one or two members of the Comité des Collections, who judge the collection and submit their results and remarks to the members of the Conseil Scientifique (an independant committee) who then decide whether to recognize the collection (as an "agreed collection" or "national collection") or not.

The members of the Conseil Scientifique gather once a year.

The plant collections are followed up and visited every five years.

The CCVS tries to help the plant collection holders in the management of their collections (classification, regulation, bibliography, etc.) and has undertaken an important work of data computerization, thanks to the help of Mr Jean-Pierre Lartigau.

We try to encourage the conservation of botanical and horticultural plants, and educate the public in the importance of plant conservation and plant collections.

In order to do so, the CCVS publishes a quaterly review named "Hommes et Plantes" , with articles about the plant collections, the history of plant collectors and botanists, famous landscapes and gardens, plant collectors and plants around the world, plants in culture and history, etc.

If you wish to get more information about the CCVS and its collections, don't hesitate to contact us by email at: Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.