Planta Europa is the network of plant conservation organisations in Europe. It consists of governmental and non-governmental organisations working together to conserve wild plants and fungi in the habitats in which they grow. Plantlife International hosts the secretariat of Planta Europa and, as a member of the network, drives many of its activities.

Planta Europa has more than 60 member organisations from 34 countries. Among them are non-governmental conservation organisations, governmental bodies, botanical gardens and universities. Planta Europa also accepts members from Asia, therefore the geographical distribution of member organisations ranges from Norway to Cyprus and from Portugal to Uzbekistan.

Planta Europa holds a conference every three years (1998 Sweden, 2001 Czech Republic, 2004 Spain, 2007 Romania) where general policy, outcomes and new actions on the ground are discussed.

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At the Planta Europa conference in June 2001, the Planta Europa network mobilised all its plant conservation expertise to develop a master plan with concrete and achievable targets to halt the loss of plant diversity in Europe by 2007. As a result of this, Planta Europa and the Council of Europe developed the European Plant Conservation Strategy (EPCS) to provide a framework for wild-plant conservation in Europe. The network has also published the results of an extensive mid-term review of the EPCS, a key outcome of the last Planta Europa conference in Valencia in 2004. Results are encouraging: more than 50% of the initial 42 targets of the EPCS are progressing well and two have already been implemented.

The last conference in 2004 also outlined the goals for Planta Europa to contribute to the implementation of the reviewed EPCS targets. Seven ambitious critical targets and an action plan for the network demonstrate what an impressive impact can be made when key players in plant conservation join forces.

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