Building Capacity for the Achievement of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation in the Caribbean Region1

Abstract

Politically and botanically diverse, the Caribbean region is a biodiversity hotspot. Current estimates for seed plant species richness are nearly 11,000 indigenous taxa, of which approximately 72% are endemic to the region. Politically, the region comprises independent countries as well as overseas territories and countries of the European Union member states and the United States. Success in implementing the 2010 targets of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) across the region was mixed, and a lack of capacity was consistently cited as a major impediment to full implementation. Several regional initiatives promote coordinated conservation activities and disseminate key information needed for GSPC implementation, including the Caribbean Botanic Gardens for Conservation, whose last meeting in Cuba identified capacity gaps needed for achieving GSPC success. This echoed an earlier regional GSPC workshop held in Montserrat and coordinated by Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD). RBG Kew has an active regional training program and is working with international partners to respond to needs identified locally. This coordinated approach, together with the development of the GSPC Toolkit, can provide a roadmap to meet the challenges of building capacity to achieve the revised 2020 targets in this biodiverse region.