Global Strategy For Plant Conservation Target Research Articles

World Flora Online: Placing taxonomists at the heart of a definitive and comprehensive global resource on the world's plants

AbstractIt is time to synthesize the knowledge that has been generated through more than 260 years of botanical exploration, taxonomic and, more recently, phylogenetic research throughout the world. The adoption of an updated Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) in 2011 provided the essential impetus for the development of the World Flora Online (WFO) project. The project represents an international, coordinated effort by the botanical community to achieve GSPC Target 1, an electronic Flora of all plants. It will be a first‐ever unique and authoritative global source of information on the world's plant diversity, compiled, curated, moderated and updated by an expert and specialist‐based community (Taxonomic Expert Networks – “TENs” – covering a taxonomic group such as family or order) and actively managed by those who have compiled and contributed the data it includes. Full credit and acknowledgement will be given to the original sources, allowing users to refer back to the primary data. A strength of the project is that it is led and endorsed by a global consortium of more than 40 leading botanical institutions worldwide. A first milestone for producing the World Flora Online is to be accomplished by the end of 2020, but the WFO Consortium is committed to continuing the WFO programme beyond 2020 when it will develop its full impact as the authoritative source of information on the world's plant biodiversity.

Brazilian efforts towards achieving a comprehensive extinction risk assessment for its known flora

Abstract Brazil houses nearly 36,400 native terrestrial plant species. The country is a signatory of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and has to develop tools to achieve GSPC targets. Target 2 states that countries must undertake risk assessments of its entire known plant species by 2020. Here, we offer a panorama on how far has Brazil gone towards achieving this target. We compiled data on all risk assessments for plant species ever made in the country and produced the first synthesis of results with respect to these assessments. We found that the Brazilian Red List Authority for plants has assessed the extinction risk of 5,646 species so far, which corresponds to 15.5% of all known flora in Brazil. Among these species, 2,738 (48%) are currently threatened. Those species are distributed across all Brazilian Biomes and states. Families with the highest number of threatened species are Asteraceae and Bromeliaceae. We conclude that Brazil is far from achieving GSPC target 2 by 2020. However, given the enormous flora of the country and the huge amount of effort and resources put into this particular task, Brazil is following a good path towards a reliable assessment of it entire flora.

The effectiveness of protected areas and indigenous lands in representing threatened plant species in Brazil

Abstract Brazil is signatory of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which provides guidelines and directions to existing national policies. This strategy aims to halt the continuing loss of plant diversity through the achievement of 16 outcome-based targets set for 2020. One of these targets (target 7) states that at least 75% of known threatened plant species should be preserved in situ. Here, we assessed the effectiveness of the Brazilian current network of protected areas (PAs) and indigenous lands (ILs) in representing all known threatened plant species. We found that the number of species represented inside PAs and ILs varied according to data type. When using occurrence records, we found that 699 (33%) threatened plant species lie completely outside PAs (and/or ILs) and that 1,405 species (67%) have at least one record inside at least one PA (and/or IL). The number of species unrepresented decreased when we considered polygons of distribution. In this case, only 219 (10%) are supposedly unprotected. Although Brazil is almost reaching GSPC Target 7 in terms of absolute numbers, the government still needs to allocate resources for properly managing and improving the conservation status of its imperiled flora and expand the network of PAs.

How to meet the 2020 GSPC target 8 in Europe: priority-setting for seed banking of native threatened plants

The contribution of the European Native Seed Conservation Network (ENSCONET, 2004-2009) and the ENSCONET Consortium (since 2010) towards meeting the 2020 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) target 8 was assessed in 2017. While the outcome was positive (62.7% of European threatened species already conserved ex situ in seed banks), the analysis showed that it was essential to provide guidance on which European native threatened species should be collected as a priority if the target was to be reached by 2020. In this paper we present a priority-setting method and its result, designed to guide collecting strategies across Europe to meet the 2020 GSPC target 8. The result of our study is a country-based checklist of European threatened taxa to be collected and stored ex situ across the seed banks of the ENSCONET Consortium by 2020. After discussing the results of the applied method, the ENSCONET Consortium Steering Committee has identified some key action points to support the implementation of such a collecting strategy across Europe in order to meet the 2020 GSPC target 8 for Europe.

Quantifying progress toward a conservation assessment for all plants.

The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) set an ambitious target to achieve a conservation assessment for all known plant species by 2020. We consolidated digitally available plant conservation assessments and reconciled their scientific names and assessment status to predefined standards to provide a quantitative measure of progress toward this target. The 241,919 plant conservation assessments generated represent 111,824 accepted land plant species (vascular plants and bryophytes, not algae). At least 73,081 and up to 90,321 species have been assessed at the global scale, representing 21-26% of known plant species. Of these plant species, at least 27,148 and up to 32,542 are threatened. Eighty plant families, including some of the largest, such as Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, and Rubiaceae, are underassessed and should be the focus of assessment effort if the GSPC target is to be met by 2020. Our data set is accessible online (ThreatSearch) and is a baseline that can be used to directly support other GSPC targets and plant conservation action. Although around one-quarter of a million plant assessments have been compiled, the majority of plants are still unassessed. The challenge now is to build on this progress and redouble efforts to document conservation status of unassessed plants to better inform conservation decisions and conserve the most threatened species.

Global strategy for plant conservation: inadequate in situ conservation of threatened flora in Spain

The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) seeks to assess the conservation status of the world vascular plants by 2020, and to guarantee that at least 75% threatened taxa are conserved in situ. A comprehensive evaluation of IUCN categories for 7269 Spanish vascular plants (GSPC Target 2), using distribution data and environmental niche models, is presented. A gap analysis to assess the percentage of threatened plants effectively conserved in situ (considering national parks, plant micro-reserves and recovery or conservation plans) was also conducted (Target 7). The result is that only 44.4% threatened species are subject to an adequate in situ protection. An appropriate management of additional natural protected areas towards the conservation of threatened plants would make Spain meet this threshold, but severe deficiencies should be corrected. The methodology presented here is proposed as a tool to assess the degree of achievement of GSPC targets. This procedure can be quickly implemented and allows an easy evaluation of the progress, as well as the pending tasks in a given period of time.

Analysis of the ex situ conservation of the Greek endemic flora at national European and global scales and of its effectiveness in meeting GSPC Target 8

We examine the extent to which the rich endemic flora of Greece, a country in the Mediterranean hotspot, and particularly that part facing an extinction risk, is effectively conserved ex situ. We detected 3067 accessions of 523 taxa representing 37.2% of the Greek endemics in 213 botanic gardens (BGs, 439 taxa) and 14 seed banks (SBs, 344 taxa) of 36 countries; 46.7% of these accessions are in Greek institutions. Seeds are available for only 23.8% of the taxa in SBs. Of the 558 threatened and near-threatened endemics, 268 are conserved ex situ. Of these, 44.8% are accessioned in a single BG and 48.9% in a single SB; in the latter, 25% are represented by a single accession number. Based on major concerns, for a taxon to be considered as effectively conserved ex situ, we propose that it be represented by no less than five accessions deposited in two institutions of two countries, at least. This criterion is met by only 6.4% of the taxa in SBs. There is still a long way to go so as to achieve Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC).

Achieving Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation: Lessons Learned from the North American Collections Assessment1

How much progress has North America made toward the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) Target 8 of at least 75% of threatened plant species in accessible ex situ collections by 2020? To answer this, the North American Collections Assessment was carried out in 2010. More than 200 botanical and conservation institutions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico contributed taxa lists to the Botanic Gardens Conservation International's (BGCI) online PlantSearch database for this assessment. By cross-referencing collection information with globally threatened species lists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), NatureServe, and Mexico's Red List, we found that approximately 35% of North America's nearly 5000 most threatened taxa are currently in ex situ collections. This marks considerable progress toward the GSPC Target 8, but there is clearly much more to do. Future priorities include collaboratively and strategically increasing threatened species representation in collections and assessing genetic diversity among collections by comparing accession-level data.

Toward Target 2 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation: An Expert Analysis of the Puerto Rican Flora to Validate New Streamlined Methods for Assessing Conservation Status1

Target 2 of the 2020 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) calls for a comprehensive list of the world's threatened plant species. The lack of such a list is one of the greatest impediments to protecting the full complement of the world's plant species, and work to achieve this has been slow. An efficient system for identifying those species that are at risk of extinction could help to achieve this goal in a timeframe sensitive to today's conservation needs. Two systems that efficiently use available data to assess conservation status were tested against a provisional International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List analysis to evaluate the native seed plant species of Puerto Rico. It was demonstrated that both systems efficiently identify species at risk, which is a step toward both the GSPC Target 2 and a more comprehensive IUCN Red List for plants. Both systems were effective at identifying plant species at risk, with the New York analysis identifying 98% and the Smithsonian analysis 85% of the plant species considered Threatened in the IUCN Red List. Both analyses to some extent overestimated those plants at risk, but the species identified are all range restricted and, thus, of some conservation interest.

From Checklists to an E-Flora for Southern Africa: Past Experiences and Future Prospects for Meeting Target 1 of the 2020 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation1

The exceptional botanical wealth of southern Africa has been known internationally since the early 17th century. However, it is only during the past 25 years that a succession of regional floristic checklists has been published, culminating in one for southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, and South Africa) (Germishuizen & Meyer, 2003) and another enhanced with primary biological information such as growth form, plant height, and altitudinal range occurrence for South Africa (Germishuizen et al., 2006). These printed products (Germishuizen & Meyer, 2003; Germishuizen et al., 2006) delivered floristic checklists for southern and South Africa, respectively, on time for achieving Target 1 of the 2010 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC). These works reflected the cumulative work of several generations of taxonomists, collectors, recorders, and databasers and were based on extensive regional herbarium collections. Two additional goals are now required for the first 2020 GSPC Target, namely adding descriptive and other Flora-style information, and disseminating such information electronically.

Addressing target two of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation by rapidly identifying plants at risk

Target two of the 2002 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), “A preliminary assessment of the conservation status of all known plant species, at national, regional, and international levels” was not accomplished by its original 2010 target date and has therefore been included as a revised 2020 target, “An assessment of the conservation status of all known plant species, as far as possible, to guide conservation action.” The most widely used system to estimate risk of extinction, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List, provides conservation assessments for fewer than 15,000 plant species. Progress achieving Target two has been hampered by the large number of plant species and the difficulty assembling the data needed for Red List assessments. Two streamlined methods for identifying those plant species considered At Risk under the GSPC Target two are compared and contrasted. Both methods use readily available locality data from herbarium specimens to efficiently identify At Risk species and approximate the list of species that would be identified as threatened by Red List analyses. A comprehensive analysis of the native plant species of Puerto Rico using both streamlined methods identifies 570 of the 2,025 species at some risk of extinction. More efficient systems for assessing threat allow a more timely response to Target two, allow conservation efforts to be directed to the species that need attention, and the list of threatened plants can be used to identify priority areas for plant conservation.

Saving Europe’s threatened flora: progress towards GSPC Target 8 in Europe

The European flora is of global significance but many species are facing an ever increasing range of threats, especially the growing impacts of climate change. While various estimates have been made for the number of threatened plant species in Europe, an up-to-date European plant Red List does not presently exist. Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) calls for 60% of threatened plant species to be conserved in ex situ collections by 2010. In the absence of a European plant Red List, it is difficult to monitor progress at the regional level towards this target. To address this gap Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has developed a consolidated list of European threatened species as a step towards a formal Red List. The database consists of national Red List data from 28 European countries and includes records for over 11,000 taxa. National Red List data were supplemented by information on the critically endangered plants of Europe provided by the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle/European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity and the Conservatoire Botanique National de Brest. A list of regionally threatened species was extracted from the database and screened against BGCI’s database of plants in cultivation in botanic gardens (PlantSearch) and ENSCONET’s (European Native Seed Conservation Network) database of plants conserved in European seed banks. This analysis revealed that 42% of European threatened species are currently included in ex situ conservation programmes in Europe.