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Convention on Biological DiversityPlant Conservation Report Page 14TARGET 2:A PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THE CONSERVATIONSTATUS OF ALL KNOWN PLANT SPECIES, AT NATIONAL,REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVELSIntroductionAn assessment of which species arethreatened allows resources for speciesconservation to be prioritized. However,despite the importance of this target, presently,only a small fraction of plant species has beenassessed in a globally comparable way.This is the only target in the Strategy that isexplicitly designed to include national and regionalcomponents in addition to a global assessment.The global target is imperative, but the need fornational and regional assessments will need to beconsidered according to national priorities andcapacities. The global assessment can providecontext for all national prioritizations, whilstnational and regional assessments can be morefocussed on providing input to legislation and onspeciic species groups of concern.There are clear economic arguments for targetimplementation, and these go beyond providing aprioritization of resources. National assessmentscan focus on threats to traded species and otherspecies of socio-economic importance, such ascrop wild relatives and medicinal and aromaticplants. Livelihoods are dependent on all threelevels of biodiversity: ecosystems, species, andgenetic diversity. Impoverishment of ecosystemsas a consequence of gradual threats to thecomponent species and genetic diversity, canaffect local livelihoods to the same degree as theglobal extinction of species.can be reached using this process alone, andhence it should be stressed that it is a preliminaryassessment that is called for, and that this neednot be a full Red List assessment.Plant assessments on the IUCN Red List ofThreatened SpeciesProgress has been made in increasing thenumber of plant assessments on the IUCN RedList: all known cycad species have now beenassessed, and there is also complete coverageof the conifers.In 2003, 1,164 plant species from Ecuador wereincluded in the Red List of which 813 werethreatened. Ecuador is extremely importantfor plant conservation, with four highly diverseregions - the Galapagos archipelago, the coastallowlands, the Andes, and the Amazon - allsqueezed into an area the size of Italy. Cycads,the oldest seed plants on Earth, are now alsoamongst the most threatened plants. Twospecies are categorized as Extinct in the Wild, andthere are likely to be more. Again, in 2003, 303cycads were evaluated and 155 of them (morethan 50%) were categorized as Threatened.Botanists were excited by the discovery of anew conifer, Xanthocyparis vietnamensis, inVietnam in 2001, but the species has beenassessed as Endangered based on its restrictedrange and ongoing deforestation in the area.www.iucnredlist.orgThe dominant method for assessment,particularly at global level, has been the IUCN RedList process. However, it is unlikely that the targetPrunus africana, now listed as Vulnerable because of itswide medicinal use (Photo: SCBD).In the last decade there has been a gradual increasein the number of species included in the IUCN RedList at a global level. However, given an estimateof approximately 370,000 lowering plants, theglobal assessments still only include 3-4% of plantspecies. More encouraging progress has occurredat a national level. During the consultation on thistarget, 52% of countries indicated that they hadcompleted some form of Red List assessment.This igure is known to have increased sincethe consultation, and would be even greater ifassessments other than Red Lists were included.It is not known how comprehensive some of thesenational assessments have been, which makes it ofconsiderable concern that a full global assessmentis lacking to provide context to these nationalpriorities. In response to the need for a more rapid
global process focussed on providing a preliminaryassessment, IUCN has developed a new methodnamed ‘RapidList’ (see end of Target 3 for furtherdetails).This method was developed speciically asa response to the need articulated by the GSPC, andcan be regarded as a signiicant achievement for theStrategy. The new method and free online tool waslaunched in 2007, and hence progress towards thetarget cannot yet be measured, but it will hopefullyencourage a rapid acceleration in preliminary andfull assessments towards 2010.Another major contribution will be the SampledRed List Index project, which will produce 1,500full IUCN Red List assessments for each major plantgroup: bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms,monocots and dicots. For gymnosperms there arefewer than 1,500 taxa, so in total around 7,000assessments will be added by 2010.Full IUCN Red Listing remains a popular approachto target implementation due to its high publicproile; target outputs lend themselves to publicAssessing magnoliasSome two thirds of known magnolia speciesare found in Asia, with over 40% occurring insouthern China. Popular as ornamental plantsin gardens around the world, magnolias in thewild are a source of timber, food and medicinesfor local communities. The evaluation of theconservation status of the Magnoliaceae,using the IUCN Red List categories and criteriawas carried out by a group of experts broughttogether by the IUCN/SSC Global Trees SpecialistGroup. The evaluation was based on the analysisof distribution data for each species compiledfrom various sources.The Red List of MagnoliaceaeDaniele Cicuzza, Adrian Newton and Sara OldfieldUnderpinning the report was a comprehensivemapping exercise, which now provides anexcellent baseline for future monitoring andconservation planning. The Red List identified131 wild magnolias as being in danger ofextinction, from a global total of 245 species.awareness campaigns as a part of Target 14, andthere have been signiicant achievements in raisingawareness of threatened species. There has alsobeen progress in increasing capacity for makingassessments, with a number of training initiativesworldwide, as a part of implementing Target 15.Fieldwork and taxonomic publications are alsomore focused on making status assessments thanthey were prior to the Strategy being adopted.Major constraints include lack of funding forield work and assessment activities leading tointer alia insuficient research and data; lackof experts taxonomists/plant experts; limitedcollaboration; incomplete taxonomic knowledgeof some families; limited herbarium and ex situfacilities, and lack of an active global or regionalassessment initiative for vascular plants.FutureIt will remain important for Parties and the globalcommunity to be able to prioritize the resourcingof species conservation. Sustainable developmentrequires that species are not being threatenedby over-exploitation and trade, and this requiresa method for assessing threat. It is clear that anaccelerated rate of global assessment is urgentlyneeded if we are to come close to achieving thistarget by 2010. The new RapidList method, beingoffered by IUCN as a complementary tool to thefull IUCN Red List approach, may help in achievingthis acceleration. Climate change will increase thethreats posed to species, and we will need to greatlyimprove data accessibility and analysis methods ifwe are to cope with the challenges it poses.South Africa’s Red Data List for PlantsThe South African National Biodiversity Institutehas recently completed assessing the conservationstatus for all 20,456 plant taxa that occur in SouthAfrica. The listing process is complete and hasresulted in an addition of 6% of the world’s florahaving been assessed, bringing the portion ofplants assessed globally to over 10%.Plant Conservation ReportPage 15 Convention on Biological Diversity
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