Achieving the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Goals for Plant Conservation

Science ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 341 (6150) ◽  
pp. 1100-1103 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. N. Joppa ◽  
P. Visconti ◽  
C. N. Jenkins ◽  
S. L. Pimm
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Conservation Planning ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Plant Conservation ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates

Identifying which areas capture how many species is the first question in conservation planning. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aspires to formal protection of at least 17% of the terrestrial world and, through the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, 60% of plant species. Are these targets of protecting area and species compatible? We show that 67% of plant species live entirely within regions that comprise 17% of the land surface. Moreover, these regions include most terrestrial vertebrates with small geographical ranges. However, the connections between the CBD targets of protecting area and species are complex. Achieving both targets will be difficult because regions with the most plant species have only slightly more land protected than do those with fewer.

Recent Developments

2004 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon C. Lovett
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Plant Conservation ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
International Botanical ◽  
International Botanical Congress ◽  
The Status ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Essential Resource

At the 1999 International Botanical Congress held in St Louis, Missouri, the President of the Congress, Dr Peter Raven, presented a keynote address emphasizing the importance of plants to human existence and underlined concerns that the Earth is undergoing a human-induced extinction crisis. One of the resolutions of the congress was to establish a new co-ordinating body associated with the United Nations to monitor the status of plants throughout the world and take steps to conserve them. The resolutions were followed up with a meeting in Gran Canaria on 3–4 April, 2000 when leading botanists met to formulate a declaration which could be taken forward to the fifth Conference of the Parties (CoP5) to the Convention on Biological Diversity held in Nairobi in May 2000. CoP5 recognized that plant diversity is a common concern of humankind and an essential resource for the planet, with as many as two-thirds of the world's plant species in danger of extinction, and proposed that at the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP6) the establishment of a global strategy for plant conservation should be considered. A strategy with 16 targets was presented and adopted at the CoP6 meeting held in The Hague in April 2002. These targets differ from the normal approach adopted in the Convention on Biological Diversity of using general principles that can be interpreted by national policy, in that they are quantified.

scholarly journals Implementing Target 10 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation at the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland

2013 ◽  
pp. 125-142
Author(s):  
Noeleen Smyth
Keyword(s):  
Native Species ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Plant Conservation ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Botanic Gardens ◽  
Early Introduction ◽  
Carpobrotus Edulis ◽  
Chemical Treatments

The importance of managing invasive non-native species (INNS), be it through eradication or limitation, is set out in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which states that parties to the Convention should ‘prevent, control or eradicate alien species’ (IUCN, 2000). Unfortunately there is some evidence that botanic gardens have been implicated in being responsible for the early introduction of many environmental weeds listed by IUCN as among the worst invasive species (Hulme, 2011). Stronger global networking between botanic gardens to tackle the problem of INNS has been suggested by Hulme. Botanic gardens have a remit to meet Target 10 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and the European Strategy for Plant Conservation (ESPC) Targets 10.1 and 10.2. The National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, in conjunction with University College Dublin and Mayo and Fingal County Councils, with grant funding from the Heritage Council, has monitored populations then researched and implemented effective control methods of two escaped garden plants: Hottentot fig (Carpobrotus edulis (L.) N.E. Br.) and giant rhubarb (Gunnera tinctoria (Molina) Mirb.) in EU protected habitats and in Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) in Ireland. Chemical treatments were trialled and tested in the field for both species, and successful regeneration of native vegetation in formerly invaded areas has been observed since treatments began in 2009.

REFLORA: A Virtual Way to Share Information about Brazilian Plants

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Zappi ◽  
Rafaela Campostrini Forzza ◽  
E. Nic Lughadha
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Plant Conservation ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Herbarium Specimens ◽  
Type Specimens ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Brazilian Flora

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. Please check back later for the full article. Brazilian flora, the richest in the world, has long been the subject of scholarly study. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, plant samples collected in Brazil were sent to European herbaria, where botanists documented the little-known flora and its potential uses. From the twentieth century onward, Brazil created research centers to house its biological collections, facilitating study by Brazilian professionals of their native biodiversity. However, many early specimens deposited in European collections have yet to be examined by taxonomists. In the early twenty-first century, cost-effective digitization techniques enabled large-scale repatriation of herbarium data. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported herbaria worldwide to digitize their collections, especially type-specimens, through the African, Latin American, and Global Plants Initiatives. A party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Brazil responds to global challenges, such as the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which set sixteen targets for understanding and conserving plant diversity. In 2008, Brazil’s Environment Ministry tasked the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden (JBRJ) to coordinate a compilation of the Brazilian List of Plants, Algae, and Fungi (Brazilian List) by 2010, to meet GSPC Target 1. JBRJ tapped the expertise of more than 500 Brazilian and foreign taxonomists to develop and maintain a dynamic list that rapidly became the reference for Brazil's flora. In 2011, Brazil’s Science and Technology Ministry, recognizing the need to link knowledge from digitized plant specimens and the Brazilian List, funded the amalgamation of the Brazilian List with a new Virtual Herbarium dubbed “REFLORA.” Founded as a partnership among JBRJ, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris), and the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew, UK), REFLORA includes two components: (1) digitization of herbarium specimens and maintenance and update of the Brazilian List, and (2) capacity-building, including visits by Brazilian researchers to European collections to improve specimen identification and foster baseline research that directly impacts plant conservation. Both the Brazilian List and the Virtual Herbarium are interactive platforms incorporating feedback from scientists involved in the project. Changes to these databases appear immediately, making current taxonomic views regarding a specimen or a plant name available online worldwide. Their success has stimulated Brazilian zoologists to prepare a similar list, while the botanical community is already responding to GSPC’s 2020 target to build a digital World Flora. The Brazilian Flora project will be founded on the platforms and scientific community created by the Brazilian List.

scholarly journals Production and international trade: challenges for achieving targets 6 and 11 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation in Brazil

Rodriguésia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1577-1585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Rubio Scarano ◽  
José Maria Cardoso da Silva
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Plant Conservation ◽  
Absolute Number ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Planted Forests ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Rural Production

Abstract Target 6 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity states that by 2020 at least 75% of production lands in each sector will be managed sustainably, consistent with the conservation of plant diversity. Target 11 stipulates that by 2020 no species of the wild flora will be threatened by international trade. Both targets, therefore, are related to production, consumption and trade, which must be sustainable if the targets are to be achieved. Here we examine Brazil's progress in achieving these two targets. We focus on the three economic sectors of agriculture, cattle raising and forestry, which are historically responsible for most of the native-ecosystem conversion in the country and in South America. Brazil has set a number of innovative policies for moving these sectors towards a sustainable path. However, the country needs to put these policies into action to generate tangible results. The results of all efforts so far are mixed. Whereas ecosystem conversion due to the expansion of rural production and the volume of illegal international logging trade have been reduced significantly, the absolute number of hectares of native ecosystems converted into cropland, pastureland or planted forests remains high, especially in Amazonia and the Cerrado. In addition, the number of species threatened by illegal timber exploration remains high mainly in Amazonia and the Atlantic forest.

scholarly journals Balancing plant conservation and agricultural production in the Ecuadorian Dry Inter-Andean Valleys

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalina Quintana ◽  
Marco Girardello ◽  
Henrik Balslev
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Conservation Planning ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Plant Conservation ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Trade Offs

BackgroundConserving both biodiversity and ecosystem services is a major goal of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Hotspots for biodiversity in the Andes significantly overlap with areas with dense human populations that sustain their economy through agricultural production. Therefore, developing management forms that reconcile food provisioning services—such as agriculture—with biodiversity conservation must be addressed to avoid social conflicts and to improve conservation in areas where biodiversity co-occurs with other ecosystem services. Here, we present a high-resolution conservation plan for vascular plants and agriculture in the Ecuadorian Dry Inter-Andean Valleys (DIAV) hotspot. Trade-offs in conserving important areas for both biodiversity and agriculture were explored.MethodsWe used a dataset containing 5,685 presence records for 95 plant species occurring in DIAVs, of which 14 species were endemic. We developed habitat suitability maps for the 95 species using Maxent. Prioritization analyses were carried out using a conservation planning framework. We developed three conservation scenarios that selected important areas for: biodiversity only, agriculture only, and for both biodiversity and agriculture combined.ResultsOur conservation planning analyses, capture 33.5% of biodiversity and 11% of agriculture under a scenario solely focused on the conservation ofbiodiversity. On the other hand, the top 17% fraction of theagriculture onlyscenario captures 10% of biodiversity and 28% of agriculture. When biodiversity and agriculture were considered in combination, their representation varied according to the importance given to agriculture. The most balanced solution that gives a nearly equal representation of both biodiversity and agriculture, was obtained when agriculture was given a slightly higher importance over biodiversity during the selection process.DiscussionThis is the first evaluation of trade-offs between important areas for biodiversity and agriculture in Ecuadorian DIAV. Our results showed that areas with high agricultural productivity and high biodiversity partly overlapped. Our study suggests that a land-sharing strategy would be appropriate for conserving plant diversity and agriculture in the DIAV. Overall, our study reinforces the idea that friendly practices in agriculture can contribute to biodiversity conservation.

scholarly journals Developing a World Flora Online - a 2020 challenge to the world's botanists from the international community

Rodriguésia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 939-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Wyse Jackson ◽  
James S. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Plant Conservation ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Online Portal ◽  
Flora Of China ◽  
The World ◽  
Digital Formats

Abstract The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation of the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted as its first target in 2010 the preparation of "An online flora of all known plants" by 2020. This target was subsequently adopted by a broadly-based international consortium of botanical institutions that have committed themselves to undertaking this ambitious project. The preparation of a world flora will be the first modern and large-scale and comprehensive attempt to produce a comprehensive overview and baseline of knowledge on the world's plant diversity. This article outlines previous historic efforts to document the world's known flora. It also describes the ways in which the World Flora Online Consortium was created, how it is organized and its plans to compile diverse datasets available in digital formats into a single online portal available and open to all. Such data are being combined from geographical floristic accounts, such as the Flora of China, the Flora of North America and many other regional and national projects, together with relevant monographic treatments.

scholarly journals A regional approach to Nordic crop wild relative in situ conservation planning

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heli Fitzgerald ◽  
Anna Palmé ◽  
Åsmund Asdal ◽  
Dag Endresen ◽  
Elina Kiviharju ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Planning ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
In Situ Conservation ◽  
Crop Wild Relatives ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Intraspecific Diversity ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Regional Approach

AbstractCrop wild relatives (CWR) can provide one solution to future challenges on food security, sustainable agriculture and adaptation to climate change. Diversity found in CWR can be essential for adapting crops to these new demands. Since the need to improve in situ conservation of CWR has been recognized by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (2010) and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (2011–2020), it is important to develop ways to safeguard these important genetic resources. The Nordic flora includes many species related to food, forage and other crop groups, but little has been done to systematically secure these important wild resources. A Nordic regional approach to CWR conservation planning provided opportunities to network, find synergies, share knowledge, plan the conservation and give policy inputs on a regional level. A comprehensive CWR checklist for the Nordic region was generated and then prioritized by socio-economic value and utilization potential. Nordic CWR checklist was formed of 2553 taxa related to crop plants. Out of these, 114 taxa including 83 species were prioritized representing vegetable, cereal, fruit, berry, nut and forage crop groups. The in situ conservation planning of the priority CWR included ecogeographic and complementarity analyses to identify a potential network of genetic reserve sites in the region. Altogether 971,633 occurrence records of the priority species were analysed. A minimum number of sites within and outside existing conservation areas were identified that had the potential to support a maximum number of target species of maximum intraspecific diversity.

scholarly journals An overview of recent progress in the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation - a global perspective

Rodriguésia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1489-1511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Sharrock ◽  
Robert Hoft ◽  
Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias
Keyword(s):  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
National Level ◽  
Plant Conservation ◽  
Global Strategy ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Garden Community

Abstract The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) with its 16 outcome-orientated targets aimed at achieving a series of measurable goals was adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at its sixth meeting (COP-6) in 2002. In 2010, at COP-10, these targets were updated, taking into account progress at the time. To date, a number of countries have developed national responses to contribute to the GSPC, including several mega-diverse countries and other plant rich countries and regions. Additionally, a number of global initiatives have been established to promote the implementation of the GSPC. This paper provides an overview of progress at the global level towards the GSPC targets, highlighting actions that have taken place at a supra-national level, as well as providing examples of good practice in national implementation. The GSPC has been widely adopted, particularly by the botanic garden community, and while unlikely to achieve its ultimate goal of halting the loss of plant diversity by 2020, has achieved many successes, not least in allowing and facilitating many individuals and organisations from the botanical community to engage with the CBD and to contribute to the achievement of its objectives, targets and priorities.

scholarly journals Regional scalable priorities for national biodiversity and carbon conservation planning in Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (35) ◽  
pp. eabe4261
Author(s):  
Li Zhu ◽  
Alice C. Hughes ◽  
Xiao-Qian Zhao ◽  
Li-Jing Zhou ◽  
Ke-Ping Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conservation Planning ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
National Level ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Stepwise Approach ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
Funding Mechanisms

To achieve the goals of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, we must identify representative targets that effectively protect biodiversity and can be implemented at a national level. We developed a framework to identify synergies between biodiversity and carbon across the Asian region and proposed a stepwise approach based on scalable priorities at regional, biome, and national levels that can complement potential Convention on Biological Diversity targets of protecting 30% land in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Our targets show that 30% of Asian land could effectively protect over 70% of all assessed species relative to only 11% now (based on analysis of 8932 terrestrial vertebrates), in addition to 2.3 to 3.6 hundred billion metric tons of carbon. Funding mechanisms are needed to ensure such targets to support biodiversity-carbon mutually beneficial solutions at the national level while reflecting broader priorities, especially in hyperdiverse countries where priorities exceed 30% of land.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document