Come and be part of a global voice for wild plants and fungi
Help wildlife, connect with nature and take part in No Mow May – straight from your garden by letting the wildflowers grow (in May and beyond!)
There are many different ways you can go the extra mile for Plantlife – from organising a bake sale, running the London Marathon or planning your own plant-themed event.
Our corporate partners benefit from 35 years of experience in nature restoration so they can achieve real impact.
Become a Plantlife member today and together we will rebuild a world rich in plants and fungi
It’s not just trees that capture and store carbon, our meadows and grasslands play an important role too.
If you’re taking part in No Mow May this year, then your garden will be well on its way to becoming a beautiful, biodiverse haven for nature. But there is a bonus to helping the wildflowers grow – as you allow lawn to become meadow, your garden becomes your very own carbon store, helping to reduce your carbon footprint.
When carbon sequestration is mentioned, most minds turn to trees. As a society we are more aware than ever before of the role of woodlands in combatting climate change and creating a space for nature. Much less discussed is the remarkable and equally vital role our grasslands and meadows can play in increasing biodiversity and capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere.
When we create healthy grasslands and meadows by mowing or grazing livestock, we are simply replicating the activity of the herds of large wild herbivores that once moved across our hills and valleys. These habitats – if the grazing is gentle, infrequent and low intensity – recreate prehistoric landscapes and provide a home for our wild plants, insects, birds and fungi. Natural and semi-natural grasslands (meaning those that are farmed but in a traditional, less intensive manner) improve the quality of our water, prevent flooding and help increase the resilience of farming to summer droughts.
This grassland – and the healthy soil beneath it – also has an incredible and little-known potential to lock away atmospheric carbon. Soil carbon is a particularly valuable store; it is far more stable and long lasting than the carbon in trees, which is vulnerable to forest fires, pests and disease.
As plants live and grow, carbon from the atmosphere is drawn down into the plants’ roots, where the myriad creatures in the soil make use of it, locking it away beneath the ground. As the diversity of plants on the surface increases, so does the diversity of microorganisms, fungi and invertebrates beneath it. The more diverse the soil life, the richer the entire ecosystem – and the more carbon the soil can store.
The almost mystical role of mycorrhizal fungi is now well known. They connect roots to the nutrients in the soil, trading sugars that plants and trees create from sunlight with locked away minerals the fungi extract from the soil. We now know that plants and trees can communicate through these fungal networks, alerting them to pests and diseases and passing nutrients to others in need.
Mycorrhizal fungi have another important role – they are critical in the ability of plants to transfer carbon to the soil. In areas of farmland, meadow and garden where the soil is ploughed, fertilised or dominated by a small number of grass species, these mycorrhizal networks are much less effective – with fewer species and a lower carbon storage potential. When we look after our farmland and gardens with care, mowing and grazing infrequently and gently, avoiding ploughing and pesticides, we nurture our mycorrhizal fungi, helping the soil to become a more potent carbon store.
By taking part in No Mow May, you will not only begin to create a home for wildflowers and insects, you will also create healthier soils that nourish your garden plants – and reduce your carbon footprint in the process.
England alone has around 640,000 hectares of private garden. If just a quarter of this area was transformed into wildflower rich meadow – by mowing just once or twice a year and collecting the cuttings – then these garden soils could potentially capture and store an additional amount of carbon equivalent to more than 3 million average cars’ annual emissions within a spade’s depth, and well over 10 million cars in soils as deep as one meter*.
Lawns and gardens are of course just one part of the puzzle – the UK’s farmed grassland landscape offers tremendous potential for us to sequester carbon, while also protecting agriculture and biodiversity.
Farmers and landowners have a fundamental role to play – combining food production with sustainable grasslands that lock away carbon in healthy, ecologically rich soils. Some 40% of the UK’s land area is grassland – but much of this is intensively farmed, limiting its potential for carbon storage.
Globally, studies have suggested that 2.3-7.3 billion tons of CO2 equivalents per year could be sequestered through grassland diversity restoration. Carbon sequestration doesn’t just mean more trees. Healthy grassland, with the more sensitive grazing and less intensive farming that nourishes it, also keeps carbon out of the atmosphere.
No matter how large or small our garden, we all have a role to play, and we can all make a difference. It’s easy to get started – just put your lawnmower away this May!
If you have any questions before getting started, from what happens when you stop mowing, to which flowers might pop up – here's everything you need to know to join the movement.
The sun is shining, the days are longer and our green fingers are ready to get stuck back in to some spring gardening.
Yellow Rattle, is the single most important plant you need when creating a wildflower meadow. Here’s everything you need to know.
Different types of grasslands, such as meadows and parks, can be full of wildflowers and fungi, benefitting people, nature and climate.
Discover the wealth of benefits provided by these biodiverse habitats and why we need to take action to make the most of our grasslands.
Healthy grasslands, rich in wild plants and fungi, can provide so many ecosystem services and benefits. With the right management, they can support wildlife, store more carbon, produce nutritious food, provide clean air and water, plus so much more.
Yet, we’ve lost almost all of our most biodiverse grasslands. We need governments in England, Scotland, and Wales to take action to manage, restore, and create grasslands that are rich in wild plants and fungi – making the most of our grasslands for people, nature, and climate.
Click to download a PDF copy
Extreme weather resilience
Diverse plant species help to cope with droughts, with deep roots accessing nutrients and water[1]
Natural beauty and cultural heritage
Filled with colour and life, grasslands enrich our landscape and culture, inspiring art & crafts
Cleaner air and water
Reducing fertiliser and pesticide use benefits our health and the natural environment[2]
Health & wellbeing
Access to green spaces improves peoples’ mental & physical health[3]
Healthier Soil
Diverse plants, fungi & microorganisms support healthy soils & their ecosystems, reducing soil erosion[4]
Climate change mitigation
Carbon is safely stored in the undisturbed soils of permanent grasslands[5]
Natural flood defence
Absorbent soils of floodplain meadows[6] and other grasslands slow the flow of floodwaters
Better, joined-up habitats
Providing food, shelter and connected corridors for wildlife across the landscape [7]
Increased pollination
More wildflowers help pollinators thrive [8]
Animal health & nutritious food
Livestock grazing on diverse plant species are healthier[9] & produce more nutritious food[10]
Cooler environment
In heatwaves, wild plants & fungi retain moisture, absorb heat[11] & provide shade for wildlife
[1] Grassland Resistance and Resilience after Drought Depends on Management Intensity and Species Richness | PLOS ONE
[2] Grassland ecosystem services: a systematic review of research advances and future directions | SpringerLink
[3] Improving access to greenspace: 2020 review (publishing.service.gov.uk)
[4] Frontiers | Managing Grazing to Restore Soil Health, Ecosystem Function, and Ecosystem Services (frontiersin.org)
[5] Briefing Document_Grasslands
[6] The natural capital of floodplains: management, protection and restoration to deliver greater benefits – Open Research Online
[7] Lowland Grassland Management Handbook (Second edition) – GRASSLAND (naturalengland.org.uk)
[8] Historical nectar assessment reveals the fall and rise of floral resources in Britain | Nature
[9] Microsoft Word – Is the rye-grass always greener FINAL (magnificentmeadows.org.uk)
[10] the-human-health-benefits.pdf (pastureforlife.org)
[11] Urban green space cooling effect in cities – ScienceDirect
We are developing the first grassland-specific toolkit to help farmers restore more species-rich grasslands and access alternative forms of finance.
A more than 10 years programme of increasing the population of the Fen Orchid in the UK lead by Plantlife.
After a big government announcement, our experts have been delving into the details on the latest funding changes for farmers.
We are calling governments around the world to recognise the importance of plants and fungi biodiversity for the planet.
Discover more about what Plantlife are doing to champion wild plants and fungi globally.
In December 2022 countries, organisations, and people from around the world gathered in Montreal to see a new global agreement to protect and restore biodiversity adopted at CoP 15.
Plantlife along with Royal Botanic Gardens Kew were there to ensure that plants and fungi were not forgotten. From our joint exhibition stand we spoke passionately to governments, NGOs, research organisations members of Youth Groups and Indigenous communities about the value of wild plants and fungi, and the need to maintain and preserve their extraordinary diversity worldwide.
On the 9 December 2022, we held a side event on Important Plant Areas-a tool for implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework (which you can watch here: Important Plant Areas- a tool for Implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework (CoP15 side event)). Important Plant Areas are an invaluable tool for helping to tackle the ecological, climate and societal crises we are currently facing.
We know that life on earth depends on its extraordinary diversity of plants and fungi, yet two in every five wild plants are threatened with extinction.
Far too often, world’s flora and fungi are relegated to a green background for more charismatic wildlife.
Plantlife has been working with partners over the past twenty 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 (GSPC), 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 Target 5 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation – to protect and manage at least 75 per cent of the most important areas for plant diversity of each ecological region.
The impact of the GSPC and the ongoing importance of specific plant conservation actions was recognised when in Decision 15/5 the Monitoring Framework for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework the CBD Secretariat:
“Invites the Global Partnership on Plant Conservation, with the support of the Secretariat and subject to the availability of resources, to prepare a set of complementary actions related to plant conservation to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and other relevant decisions adopted at the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and also based on previous experiences with the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation as described in the fifth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook1 and the 2020 Plant Conservation Report,2 for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice.”
Plantlife is now working closely with members of the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation to establish this set of complementary actions.
Plantlife is now working closely with members of the GPPC to establish this set of complementary actions.
Downland and read our Cop15 Briefing Document
IPAs are key sites for exceptional botanical richness; rare, threatened and socio-economically valuable plant species; and rare and threatened habitats. Plantlife developed the first IPA criteria in 2001.
The nature and climate crises are inseparable challenges: healthy species and habitats provide essential solutions to climate change, absorbing carbon and increasing resilience. Yet many carbon-focused initiatives are blind to the importance of plant and fungi diversity or can even do more harm than good, causing damage and destruction to our most precious wildlife.
Nature-based solutions to climate change rightly focus on trees, wetlands and peatlands, but often overlook the importance of the world’s permanent grasslands. From the smallest British wildflower meadow to the great steppes, savanna and prairies, these grasslands are home to thousands of species, many of which are threatened and endangered.
Grassland ecosystems are often undervalued in climate mitigation strategies. Yet they store between 25-35% of the world’s land based – or terrestrial – carbon, 90% of it underground. While grasslands, savannahs and rangelands store less carbon per area than forests, their underground stocks are considered safer in areas of high fire or future logging risks. Grasslands with high biodiversity can sequester even more carbon and be more resilient to the effects of climate change.
In a briefing and case studies published jointly with WWF, we demonstrate how grassland protection and restoration can support a sustainable and equitable food system, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester and store carbon, provide resilience to extreme weather events, support food security and rural livelihoods, improve health and wellbeing, and boost biodiversity.
For Plantlife and its partners, this highlights the fact that wild plants and fungi are at the heart of tackling the biodiversity and climate change crises together. To promote the wider recognition of this internationally, Plantlife has worked across the world to build a growing global network of Important Plant Areas (IPAs), which contain some of the best wild plant and fungi species and habitats. You can explore the world of IPAs through our interactive story map.
We are calling on governments around the world to align their climate and nature goals in international agreements as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. With ambitious goals in place, we need local communities, leaders, and governments to identify and recognise those precious sites for wild plants and fungi, and then collaborate on their protection or restoration – for nature, climate and people.
We, together with Birdlife International, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and WWF . are urging governments, investors and business globally to acknowledge the invaluable role grassland plays in climate change, nature recovery and sustainable food production.
Grasslands, savannahs and rangelands are huge carbon stores, vital global resources forbiodiversity, food and freshwater security, and offer many ecosystem services to support climatemitigation and adaptation.
Case studies on the importance of grasslands ecosystem in the UK, Brazil, Mongolia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
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