Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden serves as a center for global botanical research, premier horticultural display, exemplary science education and highly popular community events. Playing host to more than one million visitors each year, the Garden and its St. Louis-area sites engage a diversity of people ranging in age, ability, background, and culture through the universally resonant theme of plants and the natural world. Beyond its home base of St. Louis, the Garden’s mission is at work around the world, including active science and conservation projects in North America, South America, Mesoamerica, Africa and the Asia/Pacific region. 

The Garden's dozens of Ph.D. researchers work to strengthen scientific expertise and build community capacity in developing countries to protect and manage biodiversity before it's too late. With close to half the world's plants facing extinction, and less than one in six yet studied for potential benefits to humans, it's a race we must win. Today, the stakes are higher than ever. Giant questions, such as how a community can come to value biodiversity and live more sustainably are among the defining questions of our time. The Garden’s unique DNA—its science-driven mission to document and share information about the natural world, its history and heritage and its unparalleled commitment to community sustainability locally and globally—equips us to enthusiastically play host to BGCI’s 9th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens and welcome delegates from near and far.