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The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation

We are calling on governments, international institutions, NGOs, the private sector, educational organisations, indigenous peoples and local communities, universities and research organisations, farmers and individuals to take up the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and apply the new plant actions within their own programmes, activities and lives.

Wetland with green lily pads. Forestry on the shore.
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Far too often, the world’s wild plants are relegated to a green background for more charismatic wildlife. It is time they are brought to the forefront and celebrated for the amazing value they bring to every aspect of life on earth.

We all have a part to play in helping wild plants to thrive, now and for future generations.

Why focus on plants?

We know that life on earth depends on its extraordinary diversity of plants, yet potentially 45% of all flowering plant species are threatened with extinction.

They form the basis of most terrestrial ecosystems and provide ecosystem services to support human wellbeing, including climate regulation and food security. Plants and their ecosystems have influenced our cultural and spiritual development and are woven into languages, place names, religion and folklore across the world.

What is the strategy?

Plant species and their habitats often require specific conservation actions distinct from other taxa which may be overlooked in wider biodiversity actions and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) provides a guide to take those actions.

The new GSPC is a set of 22 Global Plant Conservation Actions that guide the implementation of the 23 Targets and 3 Goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) agreed in Montreal in 2022.

The 22 Actions aim to address the conservation of all plants including wild plants, medicinal plants, and their wild relatives.

Read the GSPC Briefing for SBI-4 briefing we produced with BGCI for the 4th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation.

The Plant Actions

Spatial planning

Ecological restoration

IPAs

Species & genetic diversity

Sustainable harvest & trade

Invasive species

Pollution

Climate solutions

Plants for people

Crops & production land

Native species

Urban spaces

Benefit sharing

Mainstreaming

Sustainable use

Sustainable consumption

Safe biotechnologies

Financial resources

Capacity building

Awareness & information

Traditional knowledge

Gender equality

The 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.
    2 Recover degraded land using a diversity of native plants. 
    3 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. 
    5 Ensure the harvest and trade of wild plants is sustainable. 
    6 Control and monitor the impact of invasive species on native plants. 
    7 Protect wild plants from pollution. 
    8 Use native wild plants for climate solutions. 
    9 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. 
    17Support developing countries to benefit from safe biotechnologies and sustainable agrifood systems. 
    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: Plant conservation (cbd.int)

Read the technical rationales for the Actions here

What other UN frameworks are the actions related to?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including but not limited to:

  • Goal 15 – Life on Land
  • Goal 14- Life Below Water
  • Goal 13- Climate Action
  • Goal 12- Responsible Consumption and Production.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Action 8 is directly related to climate mitigation.

Background

Plantlife has been working with our partners over the past 20 years to make sure that plant conservation is given priority within global biodiversity agreements.

In 2002, this led to the United Nations CBD adopting a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which was updated 10 years later.

We helped establish the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation and coordinated the Important Plant Areas programme – an important tool for achieving the target 5 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation: to protect and manage at least 75 % of the most important areas for plant diversity of each ecological region.

Twelve years on from the last update, the Parties to the CBD adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) in December 2022. Within this framework in Decisions   and 15/13 the Conference of the Parties invited the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation (GPPC), with the support of the Secretariat, to prepare a set of complementary actions related to plant conservation to support the implementation of the KMGBF.

We were one of the GPPC members which took on the task to draft these complementary actions as an update to the GSPC. The Actions were presented at the 25th Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) in October 2023 and after feedback from Parties they were updated and the new version of the actions can be found here. There will once again be the opportunity for Parties to provide feedback at the 26th SBSTTA in May 2024 where they will be recommended for adoption at the next Conference of the Parties in 2024.