IUCN
SSC
IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature – https://iucn.org/) is a membership Union of government and civil society organisations. Together, the IUCN network work to advance sustainable development and create a just world that values and conserves nature.
The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) is a science-based network of more than 10,000 volunteer experts from almost every country of the world.
The Wild Tulip Specialist Group
The Wild Tulip Specialist Group (WTSG) of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of IUCN is an international network of volunteers who are committed to the conservation and sustainable utilisation of tulip species and their habitats.
The WTSG was established in 2024 and is made up of approximately 30 members from 16 countries, although continues to add new members. This group includes scientists, conservation practitioners, horticulturalists, and communication specialists of all ages.
Our Mission
“Securing the future of wild tulips and their fragile habitats through authoritative research, effective evidence-based conservation action, and dynamic collaboration ensuring these flowers remain an integral part of functioning ecosystems across Eurasia and north Africa.”
Our Members
Dr Brett Wilson – Co-Chair
Brett is a founder and current co-chair of the group. He has conducted a recent taxonomic update of the genus, published research to show climate change is a major threat to these plants, and lead on efforts to Red List many of the Central Asian tulip species. He works at UNEP-WCMC in the Protected Planet Initiative team and is an active member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.
Ormon Sultangaziev – Co-Chair
Ormon is a co-chair of the group. He has been actively supporting efforts to research and conserve wild tulips in Kyrgyzstan. He leads work with wild tulip specialists across Central Asia. Currently, Ormon is working on conserving snow leopards and their habitats in Kyrgyzstan, but he continues to advocate for wild tulip conservation at all levels.
Katharine Davies – Red List Authority Coordinator
Katharine works in conservation and environmental policy with a specialism in environmental data. She previously worked within the IUCN Red List Unit and contributed to various IUCN Red List projects, such as the Global Tree Assessment. In 2022, at a workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Katharine delivered Red List training to tulip specialists, and facilitated the Red List assessment and publication of 53 species of tulips in Central Asia.
Akylai Kabaeva
Akylai currently works at Fauna & Flora in Kyrgyzstan delivering a portfolio of conservation projects across the Central Asia region. She is a leading expert on the illegal trade of species in the Central Asia region.
Albert Dros
Albert Dros is a professional photographer from The Netherlands. He is known for his extreme passion for landscape photography, His work has been published in some of the biggest media channels in the world, including Time, Huffington Post, Daily Mail, and National Geographic. He is particualrly interested in capturing the beauty of the world. and has a particular passion for tulips -both horticultural varieties as well as wild species.
Dr. Alexander Dubynin
Alexander Dubynin has extensive field experience in Central Asia. He is currently a researcher at the Laboratory of Geobotany, Institute of Botany and Phytointroduction (Almaty, Kazakhstan). He has a particular interest in studying threatened plant communities in Kazakhstan, including many endemic tulips; he is working towards assessing many Kazakh species for the IUCN Red List and identifying Important Plant Areas (IPAs). His work has a focus on ecosystem management and citizen science.
Dr. Alexander Pavlenko
Alexander Pavlenko is from Turkmenistan where he is an employee of the Ministry of Health. He has an interest in the flora and taxonomy of higher plants and helped describe Calligonum inerme, Ferula karakumica and Astragalus gorelovae. He has a particular passion for the mountainous regions of his country.
Dr Alexander Sennikov
Dr Sennikov is a plant taxonomist at the Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki. His current work includes research on taxonomy, phylogeny, distribution and nomenclature of vascular plants, with an emphasis on certain key territories (including Central Asia and Northern Eurasia in general) and taxonomic groups (Asteraceae, Rosaceae, but also vascular plants in general). He also acts as a museum curator, and has contributed to IUCN’s Global Tree Assessment.
Dr Anna Ivaschenko
Anna Ivashchenko, is a candidate of biological sciences, a botanist, and a senior research fellow in the entomology laboratory of the Institute of Zoology (Almaty, Kazakhstan). Her scientific interests include the biology of rare plants, regional floristics, and issues of nature conservation and protected areas. She has published around 350 scientific works, including more than 20 authored and co-authored books and monographs, including many on tulips; she was integral to the creation of the most recent monograph of tulips of Kazakhstan. Her knowledge of tulips has been used as scientific justification for the creation of specially protected natural areas and she has served as a consultant for several popular science films about tulips.
Professor Avni Hajdari
Avni Hajdari is a professor of Plant Ecology at the University of Prishtina, Kosovo. His research focuses on assessing the chemical and genetic diversity of plants, including Tulipa species, on nature conservation, and documenting traditional ecological knowledge. He has successfully implemented numerous research projects and has held positions in professional organizations, including the European section of the Society for Conservation Biology.
Carly Cowell
Carly Cowell is Botanic Gardens Conservation International’s (BGCI) Director of Conservation and leads on BGCI’s conservation initiatives across the globe..
Dr. Davron Dekhkonov
Davron holds a DSc and PhD in Biology (Botany). Currently, he works at Namangan state university in the Republic of Uzbekistan. His research mainly concentrates on the molecular phylogeny, taxonomy, and conservation of wild tulips (and other endangered species) of Uzbekistan and Central Asia.
Faye Adams
Faye Adams is the Alpine and Rock Garden Supervisor at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She looks after Kew’s wild tulip collection ensuring it is available for research purposes, restoration efforts, and planting into the public gardens.
Dr. Georgy Lazkov
Georgy is a botanist based out of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic. He manages the herbarium at this institiute as well as carrying out a range of taxonomic based research.
Professor Gulnara Sitpaeva
Professor Gulnara Sitpaeva is Director General of the Institute of Botany and Phytointroduction of and a leading Academic at the Kazakhstan National Academy of Natural Sciences. As part of her role she manages the Almaty Botanical Garden, which supports a number of tulip related research and ex-situ activities.
Irina Popova
Irina Popova works at the Gareev Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, which has a focus on the study and conservation of floral and ornamental plants the Kyrgyz Republic. Irina is the curator of many collections of Kyrgyz plants including many bulbous plants and irises. She has particular expertise in the growing of tulips and she manages both the horticultural and wild tulip collections of the Institute.
Professor İsmail Eker
Professor Ismail Eker is a botanist specializing in plant systematics, taxonomy, molecular phylogenetics, and conservation biology. He is Head of the Department of Botany at Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, where he conducts reserach focusing on geophytic genera such as Tulipa, Allium, Muscari, and Leopoldia. His work integrates classical taxonomy with molecular data to clarify phylogenetic relationships, describe new species, and advance plant conservation. His works include an important recent study of the Genus Tulipa that has helped reshape understanding of the evolutionary relationships and infrageneric structure of this group.
Johan Nilsson
Johan Nilson is the horticultural curator of bulb collections at Gothenburg botanical garden, Sweden, where he is responsible for the cultivation of geophytes, including the extensive collection of species Tulipa. Johan has a deep interest in and knowledge of the taxonomy of geophytes and has more than 16 years of experience in their cultivation needs. The species Tulipa ex situ collection at GBG is one of the largest in the world with more than 230 accessions of wild origin.
Dr. Kit Tan
Kit is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen and Botanical Scientific Advisor and Honorary Curator of the Goulandris Natural History Museum in Kifissia, north of Athens. Biodiversity in the Greek and Turkish floras is one of her main interests, as are also the tulips of Greece and Albania for which she has helped describe a number of species. She has authored and edited/co-edited several major publications. Currently working on a Flora of Milos and the endemic flora of Aegean and Ionian islands.
Professor Komiljon Tojibaev
Professor Komiljon Tojibaev is an academic and director of the Institute of Botany, at the Academy Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan and is also the chairman of the Botanical Society of Uzbekistan. He has been a key figure in the inventory and digitalization of the flora of Central Asia, especially the Tian Shan area. He is an important figure in Central Asian tulip research where has published a range of influential papers including the naming of a range of new species.
Professor Lulezim Shuka
Professor Lulëzim Shuka is a lecturer in the Department of Biology at the University of Tirana, Albania. His research focuses on the biology and ecology of endemic and endangered plants of the Balkans region. He has helped describe several new plant species, including two new tulip species, Tulipa albanica Kit Tan & Shuka (2010) and Tulipa kosovarica Kit Tan, Shuka & Krasniqi (2012).
Dr. Maarten Christenhusz
Dr Maarten J. M. Christenhusz is a UK based Dutch botanist with an MSc from Utrecht University and a PhD from the University of Turku. He is particularly interested in phylogenetic classification, extinction, conservation, horticulture, nomenclature and typification. He is the founding editor of the journal Phytotaxa, has described several new families, genera and species, and authored seven books, including an encyclopaedia of Plants of the World, and has been crucial in helping Red List all European ferns. Maarten wrote a seminal paper on Tulipa, which remains a core text for the genus.
Dr. Mario Boboev
Mariyo Boboev holds a doctorate of Biological Sciences and is a prominent biologist specializing in algoflora. He currently serves as the Director of the Kulob Botanic Garden in Tajikistan. He is a leading expert in Tajik flora and in particular tulips, which he continues to support the conservaiton of through both fieldwork and ex-situ work. He is committed to advancing biological sciences in his home country and fostering a greater understanding of local ecosystems through educational programmes and international collaboration.
Professor Mike Fay
Professor Mike Fay is Senior Research Leader, Conservation Genetics and Molecular Ecology (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK). He has published extensively on phylogenetics, taxonomy and population genetics of many plant families, including Liliaceae. He was senior author of the paper on phylogenetics and cultural history of tulips (Christenhusz et al., 2013), and he has published on the conservation genetics on cultivated plants of Tulipa sprengeri, believed to be Extinct in the Wild.
Dr. Nastaran Jalilian
Nastaran holds a PhD in Plant Systematics and is currently serving as a faculty member and research associate at the Research and Education Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources of Kermanshah Province, Iran. She has been working for 30 years at this center’s herbarium, and has also been supporting the writing of the flora of Iran, specifically on the families Fabaceae, Campanulaceae, Polygalaceae, and Liliaceae (including Tulipa). In addition, Nastaran has been involved in assessing the conservation status of endemic and rare species in Kermanshah Province and cytogenetic studies of endemic and rare species of Iran.
Dr. Natalya Beshko
Dr. Natalya Beshko holds a PhD in biology (botany). Currently, she works in the Lab of cadaster and monitoring of rare plant species at the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Her main research interests are Central Asian flora, plant taxonomy, biogeography, biodiversity conservation and protected areas.
Professor Nikos Krigas
Professor Nikos Krigas is a biologist specializing in plant taxonomy and conservation biology. Since 2017, he has been a researcher at the Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources & Balkan Botanic Garden of Kroussia in Greece of the Hellenic Agricultural Organization Demeter, Thessaloniki, Greece. He has coordinated or contributed to over 25 research projects including a number centred around the wild tulips of Greece. His publication record includes a PhD, over 35 peer-reviewed papers, 7 books, and numerous conference papers as well as several Red List reports for Greek endemic tulips.
Professor Pepy Bareka
Dr Pepy Bareka is an Assistant Professor at the Laboratory of Systematic Botany, Agricultural University of Athens (AUA). Her research focuses on understanding biodiversity through research on cytogenetics, cytotaxonomy, chromosome diversity, genome organization, and plant evolution. She has a specific focus on Greek bulbous genera and their conservation and is a member of a research team focused on the wild-growing tulips of Greece, specifically focusing on their taxonomy, ecology, molecular phylogenetics, cytology, propagation and conservation. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, three book chapters, and has contributed to multiple scientific volumes as part of her work.
Rasima Sabzali
Rasima holds an MA in Economics and an MPhil in Conservation Leadership. Currently, she works with Fauna & Flora as a Technical Officer for Enterprise and Finance, where she focuses on establishing nature-positive enterprises, developing value chains through the Participatory Market System Development (PMSD) approach, and implementing conservation finance mechanisms. Rasima’s work supports biodiversity conservation and enhances the livelihoods of local communities in regions across Eurasia, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Rasima has supported tulip conservation efforts in her home country of Tajikistan for a number of years.
Professor Samuel Brockington
Professor Sam Brockington is the Curator of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden and an academic at the University of Cambridge. His research has two strands: one exploring the evolution of the betalain pigmentation in plants and the other understanding the key role of botanic gardens in society for research and conservation.
Dr. Serik Kubentayev
Dr. Serik Kubentayev is a leading researcher at Astana Botanical Garden. His research focuses on the flora of Kazakhstan, fincluding the study of rare and endemic plants of Central Kazakhstan, study of pasture lands and vegetation of Central and Northern Kazakhstan, study of resources of medicinal plants of Kazakhstan, and the study of alien flora of Central Kazakhstan. He is an expert in Kazakh tulips and his recent work includes a publication summarising Kazakh tulip species and their distributions.
Thomas Freeth
Thomas Freeth is a horticulturist, botanist, and designer with a passion for living plant collections and their cultivation, curation, and use. He managed and developed Kew’s ex-situ collection of genus Tulipa, making them available for research and conservation. He specializes in bridging the gap between botanical collections and botanical science. He is currently the Head of Collection Support at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and is the technical lead for the living collections elements of Kew’s Integrated Collections Management System project, aiming to integrate all of Kew’s scientific collections data and make it publicly accessible.
Professor Uromi Goodale
Professor Uromi Goodale is an expert in seed conservation. She is based out of the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China.
Dr. Vahid Farzaliev
Dr. Vahid Farzaliev is Director of the Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan and the Head of the Forestry Development Service of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan. He is also an expert on Caucasus wild tulips.
Dr. Vladimir Epiketov
Dr. Vladimir Epiketov is an expert on Kazakh wild tulips. He has supported the Red Listing of Kazakh tulips for the IUCN Red List.
Could this be you?
We are always interested in new members who can bring something new to the team. We are particularly interested in tulip experts from the Caucasus, Türkiye, and Iran at this point in time as well as encouraging young conservationists to get involved in our work. If you think you would be a good fit please contact us via the contact form.
IUCN SSC Wild Tulip Specialist Group 