Do they lose the plot? Backlash as Royal Botanic Garden workers forced to undergo mandatory training to recognize ‘historical links’ to racial inequality and colonialism

• Critics say this is a waste of taxpayer money

For more than 300 years, horticulturists and scientists at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) have quietly continued their work of preserving and studying plants from around the world.

But bosses in the Scottish Government have now announced that all RBGE staff must undergo mandatory “racism” training to recognize the park’s “historical links” with racial inequality and colonialism.

They will be told how the plants they care for are actually grown from cuttings stolen from indigenous people and that the garden itself is guilty of “structural racism” and destroying the planet.

The garden – famous for its botanical greenhouses – is the latest Scottish institution to publicly condemn itself after Glasgow’s Burrell Group updated its offerings to be more “transparent” about links to the slave trade.

But critics last night hit back at RBGE’s plans to train its staff on racism – claiming it was a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Free Expression Union director Toby Young said: Why waste money on this nonsense? Perhaps a Witch Finder General may also be announced to search for the witches hiding in the Botanical Garden.’

The controversial move comes after RBGE pledged to stop naming plants after white Europeans and start adding trigger warnings to its archive papers.

Its report on racial justice – commissioned in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests – stated: “Historical documents in our archives may contain disturbingly colonial, offensive and/or racist language.”

“We must develop appropriate content warning statements to inform readers where this appears.

“The scientific names of plants celebrate their white European discoverers, effectively silencing indigenous people.

“Our naming conventions must be examined to avoid perpetuating colonial power structures. The movement of plants around the world during this period of history was fundamentally linked to slavery, exploitation, and racism.

“Historical colonization is linked to current environmental degradation through forced movement of plants and people.

“Historical plant specimens collected without permits, permissions, or adherence to access and benefit-sharing agreements may be considered stolen from indigenous people.”

A public contract uploaded to the Scottish Government portal states that all this information will be passed on to staff, including scientists, gardeners, researchers and tour guides, through a £2,000 “racial justice awareness” training course.

“This racial awareness initiative has two main goals: to enrich RBGE employees’ understanding and enhance their racial awareness,” the note says. RBGE was founded in 1670 and has a collection of 273,000 plants. It employs 240 people.

Royal Park ranger Simon Milne said: “The conversation around ethnic diversity is not new. The decision to implement the training is simply the final stage of our journey.

“As an institute operating in over 40 countries, it is essential that we provide the best support available to all our staff and students in working fairly and equitably.”