IPA around the globe

The objective of the IPA programme, to identify and conserve Important Plant Areas, is in line with the aim of target 5 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation; “protection of 50% of the world's most important areas for plant diversity assured by 2010." Plantlife International is lead partner for this target with IUCN - The World Conservation Union and thus promotes the implementation of this target around the world. Plantlife also sends regular reports on the implementation of this target to the CBD secretariat. Read the latest report here (pdf 261 kb)

There is rapidly increasing interest being generated around the world in Plantlife International’s IPA programme. In September 2003, at the IUCN World Parks Congress, botanists and conservationists from over 100 countries, across all continents, expressed an interest in developing IPA programmes, and a number of Important Plant Area project development workshops have subsequently taken place in Lebanon, New Zealand, Bangkok (for ten countries in the ASEAN region), South Africa (for ten countries in southern Africa), Morocco and Arabia. Click here to find out more about these activities

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Plantlife International is developing and testing models for plant conservation with country partners to assist with the identification and conservation of IPAs. Key to this is the development of a toolkit, which enables a process-based approach to identifying, and conserving Important Plant Areas, one which will draw on many aspects of Plantlife’s work and that of its partners across the world. The IPA programme will be further strengthened by the development of the IPA database to accommodate data from countries beyond its 2007 European remit.

Plantlife International also places significant emphasis on supporting third party efforts to identify and protect Important Plant Areas wherever requested (e.g. through provision of resources, technical inputs, training in use of the IPA database, facilitating workshops, etc).

Integrating the conservation of IPA into the wider conservation agenda is critical for their long term sustainable protection. Plantlife International is currently working with its partners to promote the IPA process within a variety of biodiversity conservation methodologies and approaches (e.g. Key Biodiversity Areas, integrated ecosystem management, landscape-scale conservation).

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