Geneva Botanical Garden / Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques Genève

What Geneva Botanical Garden / Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques Genève does

The Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève (CJBG), founded in 1817 and operated by the Ville de Genève, is a municipal public scientific and cultural institution combining a botanical garden with a research conservatory. It houses more than 11,000 plant species across living collections, an herbarium, a seed bank, a DNA/tissue bank, a scientific library, and historical archives, and serves three primary constituencies: the general public through garden visitation and educational programs, school groups through structured pedagogical activities, and the international scientific community through research output and the peer-reviewed Candollea journal.

The institution's core operational surface spans scientific collections management (with ongoing herbarium digitization), conservation banking (seeds, DNA/tissue), research laboratories, the Candollea botanical journal, school and public educational programming, and venue and event services. The underlying technology stack is centered on a botanical collections management system supporting specimen digitization and remote access to reference data; marketing and outreach are delivered through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, an email newsletter, and a website.

The business model is non-commercial. Operating income is derived primarily from institutional grants from the City of Geneva and the Canton of Geneva, supplemented by ancillary income from events, venue hire, ticketing, and likely donations or sponsorships. The institution does not commercialize its research output or collections. With 34 employees, the CJBG operates as a small, specialized public-sector unit rather than a market-driven enterprise, with no disclosed pricing for admissions or services and no external investors or equity holders.

Name

Geneva Botanical Garden / Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques Genève

Legal name

Jardin Botanique de Genève

Website

https://cjbg.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

1817

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève, founded in 1817, is a municipal public institution of the Ville de Genève that combines a botanical garden with a research conservatory housing 11,000+ plant species. It serves the general public, school groups, and the international scientific community through living collections, herbaria, seed and DNA banks, and the Candollea journal.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Public Botanical Garden / Botanical Research Institution

NAICS

Zoos and Botanical Gardens (712130), Zoos and Botanical Gardens (71213), Nature Parks and Other Similar Institutions (712190)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Native Species & Restoration Plant Nurseries (AFAMADAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Forest Nurseries, Seed Orchards & Genetic Improvement (AFAMAAAD), Seed Collection, Processing & Storage (Provenance/Genetics) (AFAMACAB)

Keywords

• Botanical research
• Plant conservation
• Herbarium collections
• Public botanical garden
• Scientific education

Headquarters

HQ city

Geneva (Chambésy)

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Public Institutional Funding: Government funding from Geneva City and Canton for botanical garden operations, conservation, and research activities

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Geneva Botanical Garden (Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques Genève) is a municipal scientific and cultural institution that maintains and curates extensive botanical collections — including an herbarium of millions of specimens, a seed bank, a DNA/tissue bank, and a living plant collection of about 11,000 species. It conducts taxonomic and biodiversity research, publishes the Candollea scientific journal, and provides public visitor experiences, school programs, and event hosting as part of its public-interest mission under Ville de Genève.

Product overview

The Geneva Botanical Garden operates as an integrated scientific institution and public attraction, combining research and conservation with visitor engagement. The institution offers a unified portfolio centered on botanical science: scientific collections (herbarium, seed bank, DNA bank, living collections), peer-reviewed publication through the Candollea journal, research activities and laboratories, and educational programs for training botanists. Public-facing offerings include visitor experiences with over 11,000 plant species, scientific mediation spaces, school programs, and event hosting services. The institution serves both the scientific community and the general public through its dual mission of understanding, preserving, and sharing botanical knowledge.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Botanical Scientific Collections (Herbarium, Seed Bank, DNA/Tissue Bank, Living Collections) Multi-modality botanical collections maintained for scientific research, taxonomic study, and ex-situ plant conservation; available to researchers, institutions, and visiting scientists for reference, loans, and consultation.
• Candollea Scientific Journal

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Kew is the closest functional peer: a historic (founded 1840) public botanical institution that combines scientific research, ex-situ plant conservation across multiple collections (herbarium, seed bank, living collections), peer-reviewed publication, and large-scale public visitation. Comparable in mission structure, scope of collections, and dual science-public role, though substantially larger in scale and funding.
• New York Botanical Garden: NYBG operates a similarly integrated model of research (LuEsther T. Mertz Library, herbarium), public education, and visitor experience across an extensive living collection. Both institutions function as urban-affiliated public gardens with major herbaria and conservation mandates, serving as direct comparators for collections scale and programming depth.
• Conservatoire botanique national de Brest: A French national conservatory focused on rare and endangered plant species conservation, sharing Geneva's restoration/conservation mandate, though more narrowly focused than the multi-mission Geneva institution.
• Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle – Jardin des Plantes (Paris): The Jardin des Plantes is a French national equivalent: a 17th-century public garden housing a large herbarium, research laboratories, a seed/DNA bank analog, and a botanical garden open to the public. Structurally aligned with the Geneva Garden in mission, scientific scope, and French-language academic ecosystem.
• Meise Botanic Garden: Belgium's national botanical garden operates a comparable portfolio of herbarium, seed bank, living collections, and research station—comparable in scale and European continental public-institution model.
• Botanischer Garten Berlin (Berlin Botanical Garden): One of the world's largest botanical gardens with herbarium and DNA banking, research laboratories, and peer-reviewed publication (Willdenowia). Comparable continental European public garden of similar scientific depth and urban-central location.
• Missouri Botanical Garden: Missouri Botanical Garden is a long-established research and conservation botanical garden operating a global botanical research program (Flora of the World), with peer-reviewed publication (Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden) and significant herbarium assets—comparable institutional architecture to Geneva.

Regional players

• Jardin botanique de l'Université de Strasbourg: A French-university-affiliated botanical garden offering herbarium, research, and education, comparable in academic-public integration and continental European scale to Geneva.
• Jardin botanique de la Ville de Lyon: A municipal botanical garden operated by the City of Lyon with herbarium, seed bank, and educational programming—comparable in municipal-public-institution governance structure and French-language botanical network, though smaller scale.
• Universität Zürich – Botanischer Garten: A Swiss peer institution located in Zurich with a public-facing botanical garden and university research affiliation, providing a domestic (Swiss) comparison point for funding model and programming scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@JardinBotaniqueGeneve
• Facebookfacebook.com/jardinbotaniquegeneve
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cjbgeneve
• Instagraminstagram.com/jardinbotaniquegeneve

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Geneva Botanical Garden / Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques Genève