Global: Implementing GSPC Target 8, a report by BGCI
20.10.10
On the second day of COP10 in Nagoya, Japan Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) have published a report reviewing progress in 2010 towards target 8 of the CBD’s Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC).
The report concludes that progress towards the adopted 2010 target has been good but we’ve yet to meet it, and that a higher target for 2020 should be adopted.
The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation which has 16 targets was adopted in 2002, and target 8 (GSPC 8) demands 60 per cent of threatened plants are in accessible ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin and 10 per cent of them included in recovery and restoration programmes. Botanic Gardens, who undertake ex situ conservation have a vital role; as the report notes ‘in the face of an uncertain future, an urgent priority must be conservation though seed-banking and living collections for as many plants as possible, by way of an insurance policy’.
Suzanne Sharrock, BGCI's Director of Global Programmes and one of the report’s authors said: “Plants are the basis of all life of Earth and it is essential that plant diversity is conserved for the benefit of future generations. BGCI will continue to work with botanic gardens to promote the implementation of the 2020 targets for plant conservation that we hope will be adopted at COP10."
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