Conservation is a crucial activity of the botanical gardens. The main foci of conservation include introduction and reproduction of plants, cataloging, phenological recording, digitization and network management. Since the establishment of the Garden, we have focused on these tasks, and the first edition of the Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden Plant Checklist was published in 1998. It recorded about 3,100 species of living plants.
After almost two decades, the number of species and cultivars conserved in the Garden has risen to  12,204 species and cultivars (the data comes from the Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden Plant Checklist, 2021 edition) scattered throughout 25 themed gardens and conservation facilities. SZBG has conserved about 240 species of cycads and is one of the world's leading ex-situ collections for these plants. The Garden is also the largest one in terms of fern conservation in China, with about 1,000 species encompassing nearly half of Chinese native ferns. In addition, the Garden also leads in the cultivation and research on the following groups, i.e., Magnoliaceae, Gesneriads, Hoya, Begonia, Plumeria, palms, Bougainvillea, bryophytes, Acanthaceae, aloes, aquatic plants, and Araceae.

Our collection and conservation work are led by the principle of similarities of the climate and ecology. Based on the location of the Garden in southern China, we focus on taxa from tropical and subtropical habitats, and those from the surrounding regions. We introduce wild species and exchange germplasm resources with other institutions. The Garden strives to be an important base for plant conservation in southern China, and even at a national level in terms of conservation, exhibitions and promotion of conservation applications.