Plantlife

The success of mankind’s ability to meet the challenges of climate change will depend on how well it conserves the world’s plants. Governments must act now, if plants are to continue to provide the resources and ecosystem services upon which all other species depend.

Juniper heath in Snowdonia, Wales: conservation of this IPA is being undertaken in partnership with the landowner and the national park authority. This IPA also lies at a pivotal point in the Countryside Council for Wales' vision for national “Ecological Connectivity,” where fragmented habitats and landscapes are restored and reconnected to enable species to survive the effects of climate change. Photo: Dr Trevor Dines, Plantlife

The Climate Change challenge for plants:

Wild plant conservation has three mutually dependent aims:

• Maintaining plant species and their genetic diversity.

• Achieving sustainable use of wild plant resources.

• Securing plants and natural vegetation as providers of ecosystem services.

These aims are most likely to be achieved where efforts are focused on maintaining plants within robust ecosystems. However, the ability of national governments to achieve these aims is under increasing pressure because of climate change; the impact of which is seen at all levels of species’ survival, including:

• A continuing shift in the potential ranges of many plant species, causing them to become extinct in their existing locations. Many will find it difficult to ‘follow the climate’, lacking adequate means of dispersal and finding their paths impeded by human destruction of wild habitats.

• Increasing scarcity of food, fuel, forage, medicines and the many other resources derived from wild plants. This will be a serious problem for the billions of people, especially in developing countries, who rely on such resources for their subsistence and livelihoods.

• The necessity to maintain water supplies, flood control and soil stability, all of which rely on natural vegetation in both river catchments and coastal margins. Water supplies, already under stress globally, will come under even greater pressure, further exacerbating potential resource conflicts.

Plantlife International

Plantlife International is one of the very few nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) dedicated solely to the conservation of wild plants. Based in the UK, it works at local, national and regional levels across the world.

Meeting the challenge – Important Plant Areas

Wild plants play a fundamental role in enabling national governments to sustain delivery of social and economic development and climate change magnifies the significance of this role. The critical factor in securing sustainable management of national plant resources is how governments involve the people and groups for whom the resources have most value.

Plantlife has pioneered the development of Important Plant Areas (IPA), a unique approach to plant conservation that engages these stakeholders at every level. These Areas are already recognised as contributing to Target 5 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, part of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The IPA approach identifies a network of the most valuable sites for plant diversity as a basis for prioritising conservation action at both site and wider landscape levels.

The IPA approach in action:

At a landscape level, over 800 IPAs have been identified in 12 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Data provided by national partners is being used to inform the European High Nature Value Programme for Agriculture and Forestry. In the UK, Plantlife is working with a range of stakeholders, including landowners and national governmental bodies, to ensure IPAs are incorporated within spatial mapping of ecological networks as a basis for developing ecosystem level adaptive management strategies to counter the impacts of climate change.

Some of the more than 500 medicinal plants on sale in the market in Dali, in the Himalayan region of China. Many species are becoming increasingly rare due to unmanaged collection. IPA projects in the region encourage sustainable collection to secure conservation of plant resources in the wild and the livelihoods of local collectors. Photo: Dr Alan Hamilton, Plantlife

At site level, Plantlife is successfully trialling the IPA approach in several community-based projects aimed at the conservation of medicinal plants in the Himalaya and East Africa. Medicinal plants represent the biggest use of wild plant diversity globally (one in five of all plant species). Herbal medicine is the predominant form of medicine available to people in developing countries; the collection of these plants for sale is also a major source of income in the Himalaya. At this level prioritisation of sites for conservation is based in particular on the perspectives of landowners and communities who depend on the plants for their livelihoods.

Plantlife also maintains a web-based, publicly accessible database that provides decision-makers and land managers at all levels with critical information on IPAs and the key threats to their conservation (www.plantlifeipa.org/reports.asp). As this is updated, it will also play an increasingly valuable role in monitoring ecosystem changes.

Important Plant Areas are a proven and practical approach for any government seeking to conserve vital national plant resources on a sustainable basis and take action on climate change.

W: www.plantlife.org.uk