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horticulture for critically endangered plants |
Launch of new initiative to help save the world’s rarest plants Today sees the launch of 'Intensive Care for Critically Endangered Plants'. This new draft guide sets out to provide a practical guide suitable for local use in all regions for how to use horticulture as a conservation tool in such critical situations. The new draft guide has been written by consultant botanist and resource management specialist Mike Read, and funded by the Eden Foundation. As Mike Read says: "For many species time is fast running out and often there simply aren’t the resources for extensive research programmes. Hence we need a realistic, down-to-earth guide that can contribute to the conservation of the world’s most endangered plants." Reintroduction of plant species to the wild will become an increasingly important conservation tool but it is a difficult task, with many pitfalls. The new guide aims to lead those in the field through the many interwoven and complex issues to wise answers. The idea for the guide came first from Eden Foundation Director Tony Kendle: "We increasingly see situations where countries have slowed or halted environmental degradation, but it can still be the case that some plants have fallen to such low levels that they are still in risk of extinction. Developing techniques that link horticulture to the needs of conservation is a major challenge for the next decade to ensure that such plants leave botanic gardens and get back into the landscape where they belong." The new guide http://www.sustainablehorticulture.org/pdf/IntensiveCareDraftApril2005.pdf is being launched on-line through the Alliance for Sustainable Horticulture (ASH) at www.sustainablehorticulture.org along with on-line discussions about how it should develop. ASH is also looking for funding or sponsors to help develop the guide. For more info check out www.sustainablehorticulture.org or call 01395-444313 or email mikeread@sustainablehorticulture.org ¡IUCN, the World Conservation Union. Red List of Threatened Species TM , 2004. http://www.redlist.org/ |
According to IUCN¡, no fewer than 3,729 plant species are endangered and facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild. Of these 1,490 are critically endangered, i.e. facing an extremely high risk. Some are down to just the last handful of individuals. Plants like the Seychelles Impatiens (Impatiens gordonii – see picture) now down to just 120 individuals in the wild.