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Convention on Biological DiversityPlant Conservation Report Page 12TARGET 1:A WIDELY ACCESSIBLE WORKING LIST OF KNOWN PLANTSPECIES, AS A STEP TOWARDS A COMPLETE WORLD FLORAIntroductionAworking-list of known plant species isessential for biodiversity management. It isan inventory of resources and a means oforganizing information in a logical and retrievableway. It also helps prevent duplication of effort andaccidental oversight when planning conservationaction. The name of a plant is the key to informationabout its uses, conservation status, relationshipsand place within ecosystems. Most plants havemore than one name. The target seeks to link theaccepted Latin name for a particular species to allits other names (synonyms). The accepted name isa unique identiier for species without which it isimpossible to ind the information necessary to planand manage the conservation and sustainable useof plants, and understand their role in ecosystems.Thus a working list of known plant species has avery broad range of potential users.list of the accepted names of known plant species.For example, Target 2, “to measure and achievea preliminary assessment of the conservationstatus of all known plant species”, can betackled on the basis of current knowledge, but acomprehensive assessment cannot be achievedwithout a backbone list of those species to beassessed. Likewise, Target 7, “to conserve 60 % ofthe world’s threatened species in situ ”, and Target8, “to conserve 60 % of threatened plant speciesin accessible ex situ collections”, also depend onhaving a correct and accurate list of acceptednames and their synonyms as a robust baseline.RBG Kew Herbarium, UK (Photo: RBG Kew).Taking a medicinal plant example, in a recent studyof the medicinal uses of the genus Plectranthus,the ive most used species are referred to usinga name other than the current accepted namein 80% of literature citations. The medicinaluses of the plants within this genus can neverbe effectively studied without an adequatelyreferenced synonymized list.Completing or even measuring progress towardsthe other 15 targets of the GSPC is extremelydificult or impossible in the absence of a workingPlecranthus sp., a widely used medicinal plants(Photo: SCBD).ProgressGlobally, good progress has been made withworking lists for just over half of all plantsavailable on the Internet, as shown in the igurebelow.
PercentageWorking lists for mosses, ferns and gymnospermsare close to completion, and working lists existfor about half of the 370,000 lowering plants.At current rate of progress, the target will bearound 85% complete by 2010. However, there isa chance of complete coverage by the end of 2010by making use of existing resources such as theInternational Plant Names Index and TROPICOS.Benin FloraProportion of plants in accessible working lists15%200253 %200785 %2010Production of working lists of known plants isgreatly facilitated by increasing access to botanicalliterature and to herbarium type specimens.Several countries have produced nationalinventories of their loras. The main constraintscontinue to be lack of funds, limited investmentin taxonomy, lack of institutional capacity, lackof legislative framework, lack of taxonomists/experts and poorly maintained collections.FutureThe large majority of plant families for whichthere is no working list available are eithercosmopolitan or pan-tropical in distribution.However, progress to date suggests that neitherbroad distribution nor large numbers of speciesin a family are insurmountable problems incompiling working lists. Such lists have alreadybeen compiled for eight of the ten largest andmost widely distributed families such as orchidsand grasses.The Chinese Virtual HerbariumIn 2006 Benin became the first West-Africancountry to have an up-to-date list of flora inits official language. By means of this book,Benin’s various endangered ecosystems canbe researched, described and managed moreeffectively.Several large botanical institutions are engagedin synthesizing global working lists from existingsources. In recent years, developments by theSpecies 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life Partnership(CoL) and Global Biodiversity InformationFacility (GBIF) have done much to provide thetechnological means for serving the content ofa widely accessible list of known species via theInternet from a variety of sources 24 .The shortage of taxonomic skills remains a barrierto effective implementation of the Convention.There are also various large regional lora projectsthat provide useful baselines and, through largebotanical institutes with a regional or globaloutlook, have become an important mechanism forstimulating the production of regional checklists,such as the African Plants Initiative, which bringstogether over 50 institutions.24 www.catalogueolife.org; and www.gbif.orgThis provides immediate on-line access to thewealth of data associated with several millionplant specimens maintained in Chinese herbariaand related botanical databases. http://www.cvh.org.cn/Plant Conservation ReportPage 13 Convention on Biological Diversity
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