A new agenda for UK plant and fungus conservation for the next
six years has just been published. Plant Diversity Challenge:
The UK's response to the Global Strategy for Plant
Conservation was launched by Elliot Morley in February 2004 at
the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The report covers
the complete spectrum of plant conservation work in the UK; it
includes the conservation of both native flora and crop plants, the
sustainable management of plant production systems, and the need
for education and improving training.
The report has been produced by a partnership between JNCC,
Plantlife International and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The partners
started compiling the UK response by organising a conference in
February 2003, at which over 120 representatives from 60
organisations involved in plant conservation met to discuss the
strategy. One year after the conference, the response has been
completed and published.
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation was adopted in 2002
by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It includes
16 outcome-oriented targets to be met by 2010. The UK is the first
Party to the Convention to launch its national response.
Much work on plant conservation is already underway in the UK;
this new report analyses how ongoing work will fit into the
framework of the Global Strategy, and then assesses in detail what
more needs to be done and what priority that action has.
Plant Diversity Challenge will make a significant
contribution to meeting the Government's obligations to the
Convention on Biological Diversity, of which the Global Strategy
for Plant Conservation is a part. In addition, implementing the
report will contribute to meeting the 2010 target to reduce
significantly the rate of biodiversity loss, agreed at the World
Summit in Johannesburg, and also the more challenging target to
halt the decline in biodiversity by 2010, agreed by EU countries
and the Environment Ministers in the pan-European region.
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