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The Plant Actions Toolkit

The Plant Actions toolkit is being designed to be a one-stop shop for the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC). It is a guide to ensuring a world rich in wild plants and supports the world’s governments, institutions and all sectors of society to meet our common commitment to “halt and reverse biodiversity loss and to put nature on a path to recovery”.

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Plants are a vital component of our planet’s biological diversity and are essential to all life on earth. They form the basis of most terrestrial ecosystems and provide ecosystem services to support human wellbeing, including climate regulation and food security.

The newest version of the GSPC outlines 21 Global Plant Conservation Actions, adopted in Cali, Colombia at CBD CoP 16 (21 October- 2 November 2024). These actions recognise that plant species and their habitats often require specific conservation actions distinct from other taxa (which may be overlooked in wider biodiversity actions) and will help to achieve the plant conservation elements of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), adopted at CoP15, Montreal 2022.

Why do we Need Specific Actions for Plants?

Plants and their ecosystems have also influenced our cultural and spiritual development and are woven into languages, place names, religion and folklore across the world.

Yet, despite this critical role plants have in almost all aspects of our lives, RBG Kew’s State of the World’s Plant and Fungi (2023) report estimated that 77% of undescribed vascular plants and 45% of known flowering plants are estimated to be threatened with extinction.

Far too often, the world’s wild plants are relegated to a green background for more charismatic wildlife. These figures highlight the urgency of bringing plants to the forefront and to celebrate the amazing value they bring to every aspect of life on earth.

How the Plant Actions can help you

Whether you are a government, global institution, NGO, company, educational institution, indigenous people, local community, landowner, farmer or an individual, the toolkit will soon be able to be used to guide how the Plant Actions can be included in your own conservation programmes and activities.

The icons below represent each of the 21 Plant Actions which, and in time will provide an explanation of the action together with relevant websites, additional information, and organisations, that can provide support to the implementation of the action.

We will continue to develop this toolkit to meet the needs of its users, adding more resources – including case studies, generated as the Parties and Non-State Actors deliver the actions. In essence, we hope the toolkit inspires and supports a “whole of society” approach to scale up the recovery and protection of plants and safeguard their future existence across the globe.

We want to learn from you! So, please help us by contributing your resources, information, experience and success stories to this developing toolkit by contacting our Global Advocacy Officer Claire Rumsey.

The Plant Actions

More on the Plant Actions

For a list of the actions please click arrow below.

  • NoGlobal Plants Actions
    1Identify and map plant species and Important Plant Areas to inform land use planning.
    Recover degraded land using a diversity of native plants. 
    Identify, protect and manage Important Plant Areas. 
    4Stop the extinction of wild plants and recover threatened species. 
    Maintain the genetic diversity of the plants we rely on. 
    Ensure the harvest and trade of wild plants is sustainable. 
    Control and monitor the impact of invasive species on native plants. 
    Protect wild plants from pollution. 
    Use native wild plants for climate solutions. 
    Support Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to sustainably manage the wild plants that are important to them. 
    10Restore the diversity of plants important for sustainable farming, forestry and fisheries. 
    11Use native species for ecosystem restoration and nature-based solutions. 
    12Create plant-rich green and blue spaces in towns and cities. 
    13Share the benefits of wild plant resources and knowledge fairly. 
    14Integrate plant diversity into policy, planning and strategies.    
    15Promote sustainable practice in the commercial use of wild plants.
    16Provide information, guidance, education and research to support sustainable use and consumption of wild plants. 
    No particular plant conservation action is required under Target 17, except to support its achievement
    No particular plant conservation action is required under Target 18, except to support its achievement
    19Mobilise resources for plant conservation action. 
    20Develop skills, capacity and partnerships for plant conservation and ecological restoration. 
    21Develop public awareness, information systems and citizen science programmes to support plant conservation action. 
    22Respect and safeguard the botanical knowledge and practices of indigenous people and local communities.  
    23Respect women’s role as essential knowledge holders and uphold their rights to participate, make decisions and access plant resources. 

     

Read the full Actions here.