ABSTRACT
The Kuzbass Botanical Garden is one of the youngest academic botanical gardens in Russia. It was laid out in 1991 in the south of Western Siberia (Kemerovo region, Russia) and covers an area of 186.3 hectares. This region is characterized by significant anthropogenic and technogenic disturbances of natural ecosystems associated with the mining industry development. The purposes of creating the botanical garden include the introduction of native flora plants, a botanical study of Siberia, the development of new technologies aimed at the revegetation of coal mine rock dumps, and the in situ and ex situ conservation of floral diversity. The collections and displays comprise 1,630 species, including 504 plant species of the native flora of Siberia. The herbarium of the botanical garden has about 60,000 sheets, including 64 typical taxa from Siberia and Kazakhstan. Fundamentally new nature-like technologies for restoring the vegetation cover of disturbed lands are being developed in the botanical garden. The conservation of rare and endangered plants is realized through creating reserve populations within the botanical garden territory (ex situ), creating a system of specially protected areas (in situ), and developing novel approaches to environmental education and upbringing.
