A NATIONAL TREASURE – The Re-Launched Dominica Botanic Gardens Website

In 2004 the Dominica Academy of Arts and Sciences (hereinafter “The Academy”) was formed as a Maryland non-profit corporation  to unite the competences of Dominicans at home and abroad for development endeavor. The co-founder of The Academy and webmaster of its website (da-academy.org) was Raglan Riviere, a Dominica born sociologist resident in Canada. 

One of the most dynamic, informative and frequently visited sections of The Academy’s website was that devoted to the Dominica Botanic Gardens. The Dominica Botanic Gardens was conceived in 1889, and its first curator was Charles Murray of the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens.  The Dominica Botanic Gardens, a veritable laboratory of plants from around the world, by 1900, was considered one of the finest botanic gardens to be found anywhere. The development of the Academy’s Gardens website benefited tremendously from the support and contribution of the local forestry department, Ministry of Agriculture officials, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England (which was instrumental in the founding of the Dominica Botanic Gardens) and officials from the Smithsonian. Though there were many who contributed photographs and articles to the Botanic Gardens website, the primary architects of its crafting were agriculture scientists from The Academy Drs. Dave Shillingford and Clayton Shillingford.

In  2015 Raglan Riviere passed away after a decade and a half of unselfish service in promoting development partnerships and projects in the arts and sciences for the benefit of his home Island, its Diaspora and – indeed – the world. In tribute to Mr. Riviere, and in a fashion most worthy of his commitment to a sense of duty to his country and the importance of education in the botanic sciences, Dr. Dave Shillingford spearheaded the revival of the Dominica Botanic Gardens website of The Academy, as a new and separate entity. 

The site can be viewed here:

http://www.dominicagardens.com

The well design and informative site is an outstanding salute to the life’s work of Raglan Riviere and those development stalwarts who, with focus and determination, stood with him and The Academy to better the island of their birth and the universal patrimony that is botanic science education. With sections on the  Dominica Botanic Gardens early history, its medicinal plants, a section on plants associated with commercial botany, and much more, the easily navigated new website offers the world of botany to the casual viewer, the student engaged in a class project, the research botanist, or those generally interested in agriculture or horticulture. 

May this effort in re-launching this state-of-the-art website benefit our agriculture, our efforts to combat global warming, all the while aiding our food security and the overall sustainability of human life on our planet.

This sterling effort by Dr. Dave Shillingford to maintain the Botanic Gardens website serves the best principles of the scientific method promoted by The Academy. The Dominica Botanic Gardens is a vital part of our cultural heritage and our desire to survive and thrive. It is our hope that our policy planners, and people in general, will join in this task of preserving and promoting the Dominica Botanic Gardens and its website, for the ages.