World’s Plant Experts Call For Renewed Plant Conservation Efforts
More than 2000 scientists from 73 nations attending the 18th International Botanical Congress in Melbourne, Australia, called on the governments of the world to act to halt further declines in the plant life of the planet.The Congress acknowledged that:
- As many as two-thirds of the world’s 350,000 plant species are in danger of extinction in nature during the course of the 21st century.
- Human beings depend on plants for almost every aspect of life, and our expectations of using them to build more sustainable, healthier, and better lives in the future.
- Plant diversity is increasingly threatened worldwide as a result of habitat loss, unsustainable exploitation of plant resources, pollution, climate change, the spread of invasive species and pathogens and many other factors.
- Renewed and intense efforts are urgently needed worldwide by governments, intergovernmental bodies, and scientific, environmental, and conservation organizations and institutions, if the loss of plant diversity is to be successfully halted.
They also challenged botanical, environmental and conservation organizations such as the Plant Network to redouble their efforts to achieve the objectives of the Global Strategy by 2020.
Finally, they asked governments, inter-governmental agencies and donors to provide new resources to support plant conservation actions and to help build capacity for the management and conservation of plant resources worldwide.
Posted: 05/08/2011