This project began in 2007 when Auckland Botanical Society and the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network began discussing the idea of digitising all the back issues of the regional botanical society journals. These back issues have a wealth of information in them about plant life in New Zealand and yet very few people have access to the full set.
The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, working in conjunction with the regional botanical societies, bid to the New Zealand Government’s Terrestrial and Freshwater Biodiversity Information System Programme (TFBIS) for funding.
Since 2008, with funding from TFBIS, the Network has been working to digitise these journals with the considerable help of the committees of the Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury Botanical Societies and Steve Pawson and Jon Sullivan.
The end product is a fully searchable database of regional botanical society journals going back to 1941 when Wellington Botanical Society published their first Bulletin.
The best way to keep up-to-date with botanical and plant conservation events, and to obtain the most recent issues, is to join one or more of these organisations.
For a national perspective you can join either the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network or the New Zealand Botanical Society. For regional botanical events and field trips join one of the many regional botanical societies.