Rationale

Global Strategy

Rationale, scope and general principles

Plants are universally recognized as a vital part of the world's biological diversity and an essential resource for the planet. In addition to the small number of crop plants used for basic food and fibres, many thousands of wild plants have great economic and cultural importance and potential, providing food, medicine, fuel, clothing and shelter for vast numbers of people throughout the world. Plants play a key role in maintaining the planet's basic environmental balance and ecosystem stability and provide an important component of the habitats for the world's animal life. At present, a complete inventory of the plants of the world has not been assembled, but it is estimated that the total number of vascular plant species may be of the order of 300,000. Of particular concern is the fact that many are in danger of extinction, threatened by habitat transformation, over-exploitation, alien invasive species, pollution and climate change. The disappearance of such vital and large amounts of biodiversity sets one of the greatest challenges for the world community: to halt the destruction of the plant diversity that is so essential to meet the present and future needs of humankind. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation is proposed to address this challenge. While the entry point for the Strategy is conservation, aspects of sustainable use and benefit-sharing are also included.
The rationale for a strategy focusing on plants has two aspects:
1. Plants are primary producers and provide habitat infrastructure for many ecosystems;
2. Setting meaningful targets is feasible since scientific understanding of at least higher plants, though incomplete, is better than for most other groups.
Accordingly, the Strategy addresses the Plant Kingdom with focus on higher plants, and other well-described groups such as Bryophytes and Pteridophytes. The setting of measurable targets for this set of taxa is more credible than for many lower plant groups. This does not imply that these groups do not have important ecological functions, nor that they are not threatened. However, effective action will be best achieved by focusing, in an initial phase at least, on achievable outcomes for known taxa. Parties may choose on a national basis to include lower taxa.
The Strategy applies to plant genetic diversity, plant species and communities and their associated habitats and ecosystems.
The Strategy would provide a framework for actions at global, regional, national and local levels. A global dimension to the Strategy is important because it can:
1. Facilitate the development of a global consensus of key objectives, targets and actions;
2. Strengthen possibility of implementing necessary transnational actions (such as some recovery programmes);
3. Optimize availability and usefulness of information;
4. Be used to focus research on key generic issues (such as conservation methods);
5. Allow the identification of appropriate standards for plant conservation;
6. Mobilize support for globally significant actions (globally threatened species; "centres of plant diversity" and "hot spots"); and
7. Allow for collaboration between national, regional and international entities.
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation will:
1. Apply the Convention provisions on access and benefit-sharing, drawing as appropriate on the Bonn Guidelines for access and benefit-sharing, with a view to ensuring a fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources, and consistent with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture;
2. Build upon the knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities, with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices, and contribute to the implementation of Article 8(j) of the Convention;
3. Apply the ecosystem approach adopted under the Convention, recognizing the interaction of plants and plant communities, with other components of ecosystems, at all scales, and their role in ecosystem functions and processes. The ecosystem approach also implies, inter alia, intersectoral cooperation, decentralization of management to the lowest level appropriate, equitable distribution of benefits, and the use of adaptive management policies that can deal with uncertainties and are modified in the light of experience and changing conditions;
4. Employ in situ conservation measures as the primary approach for conservation, complementing them where necessary with ex situ measures. The Strategy provides an opportunity to explore linkages between in situ and ex situ conservation, including in restoration programmes.
5. Adopt a multidisciplinary approach that takes into account scientific, social and economic issues;
6. Strengthen initiatives on national inventories.