Societal Impact Statement: Current international laws surrounding accessing and sharing biological materials in botanic gardens is limiting their capacity to conserve, research, educate and raise public awareness about biodiversity. We set out an argument for using the access and benefit sharing arrangements of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture rather than the current Convention on Biodiversity. This will make the valuable materials of botanic gardens more accessible and useable while retaining the important equity and fairness imperatives under current arrangements. This is important because these materials will contribute to many future foods, feeds, fibres, materials and medicines. Summary: We argue botanic gardens could mitigate the resource-heavy and complex obligations involved in regulating acquisition and sharing materials under the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and its protocol by instead using the specialised scheme in the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty). We set out the arguments exploring how the Plant Treaty could be used. This includes identifying the benefits for botanic gardens such as: (1) a public/common good (or common pool resource) rather than a private good/ownership ideology embedded in the CBD and its protocol; (2) a single Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) for every exchange with standard provenance and benefit sharing obligations; (3) broad coverage of plant materials including those acquired before the CBD entered into force on 29 December 1993 as well as materials collected after 1993 with unknown, uncertain or complicated provenance; and (4) access to a Benefit Sharing Fund that actively funds conservation projects, particularly in low-income countries. We identify two options: Option 1 is for botanic gardens to rely on a strict and favourable legal interpretation of the Plant Treaty and start using the SMTA for exchanges of accessions; and Option 2 is to seek a decision from the Plant Treaty Governing Body endorsing botanic gardens bringing their accessions within the scope of the Plant Treaty. We favour Option 2 and set out a way forward building a political consensus among States supporting botanic gardens taking up the Plant Treaty for their accessions (the political licence).