The future of plant conservation and the role of botanic gardens

Plant Diversity, 2018

The severely threatened Chinese flora urgently needs a new, well adapted to China and properly formulated conservation strategy. The present review provides a detailed conservation methodology that complements previously described guidelines for preservation of plant species with extremely small populations (PSESP) in China. This review adds to the above concept in several aspects, making it relevant to all threatened Chinese plant species. The proposed integral conservation strategy has the following crucial components:-ecoregional basis for conservation planning and implementation;-a unified scoring system that is used in regional systematic planning for reserve design, monitoring and assessment of efficiency of a reserve network, and creation of seed banks and living collections;-a focus on population demography and the presence of naturally occurring regeneration as the key criteria for defining the conservation status of a species and the appropriate major focus of the species recovery plan;-creation of multi-species living collections that preserve species genetic variation and provide material for in situ actions;-experimental translocation of threatened species into multiple locations within and outside their known range. Adopting and implementing these strategies successfully and more fully in China requires that the country changes PA legislation and improves PA management, the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) re-prioritizes the type of research that receives research funds, and local scientists improve their approach toward information sharing.

BioScience, 2011

China harbors one of the most species-rich floras in the world. This plant diversity is currently severely threatened by high levels of habitat degradation and unsustainable resource extraction, the country's exceptionally fast economic growth, an uncontrolled increase in tourism, invasive species, and climate change. Furthermore, China's current system of protected areas is ineffective at conserving the country's plant resources, with low levels of enforcement and only a few small reserves located in both the most phytodiverse regions and in areas facing the highest anthropogenic pressure. Seven strategic steps are required in order to secure a future for China's wild plants, including surveys to establish current species distributions and threat levels, the creation of an effective protected-area system focused on quality rather than quantity, resettlement of parts of the scattered rural population, control of the illegal export trade and invasive species, and a streamlining of administrative responsibilities and capacity building in conservation.

PhytoKeys, 2017

Actions and priorities to connect the global community of plant scientists with the world's changing societies are today more imperative than ever. Environmental degradation, unsustainable resource use, and biodiversity loss all require integrated, collaborative solutions. A CHANGING WORLD As plant scientists we are increasingly aware and concerned with the accelerating rate of change of our planet and our societies. In our lifetimes we have witnessed major alterations in the structure and make-up of land, water, and the atmosphere, in use of natural resources and agricultural practices, in migration of plants, animals, and people, in rates of urbanization, and in the rise and spread of infectious diseases. The rate of species extinction is greater now than at any time in the last 65 million years. It is clear that this tremendous transformation, with its profound effect on nature, is primarily the result of human activities. The degree of pressure on the environment has never been greater-far beyond the level at which natural systems will be able to maintain sustainable productivity. The need to act is urgent.

Trends in plant science, 2009

In 2002, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. This Strategy provided an important new opportunity to focus on the potential loss of tens of thousands of threatened plant species. Here, we briefly describe the development and implementation of the Strategy.

Plant Ecology, 2010

Over the past decade, there has been a rapid increase in the numbers of research manuscripts from China published in international English language journals with a focus on plant ecology. This reflects the growing numbers of research and research-training institutions, the improved capacity of Chinese researchers to communicate their findings in English, and an expansion of international research collaborations. These trends may be partly attributable to more outward-looking government policies that recognize the broader economic, environmental and cultural values of international engagement, and policies that encourage talented scientists to stay in, or return to China, as well as the raised scientific prestige associated with publication of research in highly ranked international journals. With this increased international perspective, Chinese researchers are benefiting from greater access to plant ecological research in other parts of the world, while researchers from other parts of the world are discovering more about the plant ecology of China. Publication statistics suggest a trend of continued momentum from researchers in China to contribute to international journals related to plant ecology.

Plant Diversity

Despite the massive efforts that have been made to conserve plant diversity across the world during the past few decades, it is becoming increasingly evident that our current strategies are not sufficiently effective to prevent the continuing decline in biodiversity. As a recent report by the CBD indicates, current progress and commitments are insufficient to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets by 2020. Threatened species lists continue to grow while the world's governments fail to meet biodiversity conservation goals. Clearly, we are failing in our attempts to conserve biodiversity on a sufficient scale. The reasons for this situation are complex, including scientific, technical, sociological, economic and political factors. The conservation community is divided about how to respond. Some believe that saving all existing biodiversity is still an achievable goal. On the other hand, there are those who believe that we need to accept that biodiversity will inevitably continue to be lost, despite all our conservation actions and that we must focus on what to save, why and where. It has also been suggested that we need a new approach to conservation in the face of the challenges posed by the Anthropocene biosphere which we now inhabit. Whatever view one holds on the above issues, it is clear that we need to review the effectiveness of our current conservation strategies, identify the limiting factors that are preventing the Aichi goals being met and at the same time take whatever steps are necessary to make our conservation protocols more explicit, operational and efficient so as to achieve the maximum conservation effect. This paper addresses the key issues that underlie our failure to meet agreed targets and discusses the necessary changes to our conservation approaches. While we can justifiably be proud of our many achievements and successes in plant conservation in the past 30 years, which have helped slow the rate of loss, unless we devise a more coherent, consistent and integrated global strategy in which both the effectiveness and limitations of our current policies, action plans and procedures are recognized, and reflect this in national strategies, and then embark on a much bolder and ambitious set of actions, progress will be limited and plant diversity will continue to decline.

Nature conservation has changed from an idealistic philosophy to a serious technology (J. Harper, 1992) A review is given of the major conceptual changes that have taken place during the last 50 years in our understanding of the nature of plant conservation and of the principal methodological advances in undertaking conservation assessments and actions, largely through the incorporation of tools and techniques from other disciplines. The interrelationships between conservation and sustainable use are considered as well as the impact of the development of the discipline of conservation biology, the effects of the general acceptance of the concept of biodiversity and the practical implications of the implementation of the Convention on Biological diversity. The effect on conservation policy and management of the accelerating loss or conversion of habitats throughout the world and approaches for combating this are discussed. #

2014

Plants, People, Planet

Who is better prepared than plant scientists to care for our common garden in the face of environmental threats that must be overcome? Regardless of how important our short-term goals may seem, we are citizens of a world in which a large proportion of other living forms are moving rapidly toward extinction. Collectively, human beings have created a world in which only our very best efforts will ensure peace, prosperity, and sustainability for ourselves and those who will follow us. The possibility of building a durable future may still be within our grasp, but only if we undertake a level of collective effort and cooperation much greater than anything we have attempted thus far. In July 2017, a group of plant scientists gathered in Shenzhen for an especially productive meeting, the first International Botanical Congress held in China. Here, I shall review the Shenzhen Declaration, a series of suggestions for how plant scientists might contribute to the overall human effort, endorsed by the Delegates at the conclusion of the Congress (Shenzhen Declaration Drafting Committee, 2017). These

Research Ideas and Outcomes

Even though plants represent an essential part of our lives offering exploitational, supporting and cultural services, we know very little about the biology of the rarest and most threatened plant species, and even less about their conservation status. Rapid changes in the environment and climate, today more pronounced than ever, affect their fitness and distribution causing rapid species declines, sometimes even before they had been discovered. Despite the high goals set by conservationists to protect native plants from further degradation and extinction, the initiatives for the conservation of threatened species in Europe are scattered and have not yielded the desired results. The main aim of this Action is to improve plant conservation in Europe through the establishment of a network of scientists and other stakeholders who deal with different aspects of plant conservation, from plant taxonomy, ecology, conservation genetics, conservation physiology and reproductive biology to pr...