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Discover the magical world of the UK’s wonderful wild plants and fungi and connect with nature near you.
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
We use research and evidence to support all of our work at Plantlife.
Science and research inform our conservation activities on the ground and direct our policy and advocacy campaigns.
Using and creating evidence makes sure we achieve the best possible outcomes for plants and fungi.
We are proud to be accredited as an Evidence Champion by Conservation Evidence, based at the University of Cambridge. Conservation Evidence provide a free, authoritative information resource designed to support decisions about how to maintain and restore global biodiversity.
We have several research priorities focussed around our work on grasslands, temperate rainforests and plant and fungal species recovery.
Grasslands – Over 97% of the UK’s species-rich grassland has been lost in less than a century and it now covers just 1% of land. We are working across England, Scotland and Wales to restore these.
Temperate Rainforest – British Temperate Rainforests are of global importance, having the greatest concentration of oceanic lichens and mosses in Europe, they are rare habitats. At Plantlife, we’re working to protect their long-term future.
Species Recovery – We are leading recovery work of threatened plant and fungal species. We share our expertise in habitat management best practices in encouraging wild plants and fungi to grow and thrive.
Please get in touch with us if you wish to discuss your research ideas (contact details below).
You can get involved with the science at Plantlife by volunteering for one of our citizen science schemes. Volunteers are incredibly important to the work that we do and volunteering is a great way of learning more about the plants and fungi in your local area.
The National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS) is a nationwide project where volunteers conduct several botanical surveys a year, at their allocated sites.
Waxcap Watch is a citizen science project that involves using an app to record the colours of waxcaps and other grassland fungi through surveys you carry out in your own time.
We work in partnership with a wide range of organisations. This includes universities, botanical and mycological societies, other charities and environmental organisations, government bodies and landowners.
We collaborate on student-led research, citizen science programmes, academic and industry led projects.
Our expertise in plants, fungi, biological data and GIS, together with our work to protect and restore species and habitats, enables us to use research findings to have a practical conservation impact.
We’re involved in a variety of research work. Here is a small selection of some of the projects we’re a part of.
Freya Read, a Masters student at the University of York, used species distribution modelling to identify climate refugia for 12 of our focal vascular plant species – potentially providing useful information for translocation sites. Using predicted 2080 distributions, Freya identified UK protected areas that act as in situ or ex situ refugia for focal plant species. This study revealed that many current habitats will become unsuitable by 2080, highlighting the urgent need to protect refugia.
An analysis has been carried out to help identify the UK’s richest lichen rainforest sites. It has brought together records of over 100,000 species collected over the past 20 years from the British Lichen Society, Plantlife project activities and the National Biodiversity Network Atlas. Read more here.
This project aimed to answer the conservation question ‘how can ancient grasslands be identified and defined, including using CHEGD* fungi as key indicator species, in order to better facilitate their protection?’
A proposed set of criteria and their associated assessment methods were identified, together with evidence gaps requiring further research and investigation. This work was funded by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES).
*CHEGD brings together the key grassland fungi groups which includes clubs, spindles, and coral fungi (Clavarioids), waxcaps (Hygrocybe and related genera), pinkgills (Entoloma species), earthtongues (all genera in Geoglossaceae), and then crazed caps, fanvaults, and meadowcaps (Dermoloma, Camarophyllopsis, Hodophilus, and Pseudotricholoma species)
Visit our publication page below to find out more, or read the full report here.
Read all of our latest scientific research, studies and reports.
Horticultural businesses, major retailers and NGOs have come together to call on the government to legislate to end peat sales.
We are calling on the government and the horticultural industry to end the use of peat in gardening and horticulture.
Peatlands continue to be devastated by the commercial extraction of peat, which has knock-on effects on wildlife, carbon stores, flood risk and water quality.
The Peat-free Partnership, a coalition of horticultural organisations and environment NGOs – including Plantlife, has sent a letter to Keir Starmer calling for an end to peat sales.
The letter has more than 100 signatories including Chris Packham, B&Q, Co-op, Evergreen and many of our fellow eNGOs.
Visit the Peat-free Partnership
Peatlands are home to some of the UK’s most distinctive plant communities. Diverse organisms have evolved in response to the low-nutrient conditions which has led to some remarkable adaptations, like the insect-eating sundews and butterworts, and the spongy blankets of colourful sphagnum mosses.
Peatlands are also one of our most important terrestrial carbon sinks. But, when bogs are drained or the peat is exploited, the peat is exposed to the air and begins to break down, releasing carbon dioxide. This turns a huge carbon store into a vast emitter, contributing to climate change.
Other plants to find in peatlands, such as Plantlife’s Munsary reserve in Scotland, include cotton grasses, bog asphodel, rare sedges, cuckooflower, marsh violet, marsh cinquefoil and marsh willowherb. These support a range of butterflies, dragonflies and birds, including snipe and curlews, merlins and skylarks.
Read more here.
Nicola Hutchinson, Director of Conservation, Plantlife, the host organisation for the Peat-free Partnership, said: “There is overwhelming support for the ban on the sale of peat – with major retailers, the horticultural industry, MPs, conservation charities and 95% of the public backing a fully peat-free, sustainable UK horticultural industry.
“We’ve been talking about this for too long. We’re calling on the government to act now. Let’s legislate and keep peat in the ground and out of our gardens.”
There are many ways you can support this campaign at home in your garden or online:
Agricultural grasslands dominate Wales’ rural landscape. Finding ways to restore species-rich habitats to farms is a priority for Plantlife Cymru.
Chris Jones, the Warden of Kenfig National Nature Reserve, recently found the very rare fungus, during a routine survey.
Every day, our wild plants and fungi are put at risk from planning decisions, chemical sprays and more. Find out what you can do to help protect nature.
Coul Links Conservation Coalition urge Ministers to step in and save Coul Links as Highland Council votes to grant permission for the golf course development, despite overwhelming opposition.
Alistair Whyte, Head of Plantlife Scotland
The fate of one of Scotland’s important and last remaining undeveloped dune systems now lies in the hands of Scottish Ministers after Highland Council’s North Planning Applications Committee voted to grant permission for an 18-hole golf course development on the nationally and internationally protected site for nature.
Councillors voted by eight in favour, six against to allow the plans by developer C4C for Coul Links, near Embo in East Sutherland, against the advice of Highland Council’s own planning officers, and in the face of almost 750 objections including from statutory consultee NatureScot, Scottish Government’s advisers on nature.
Serious concerns have been raised about the wide-ranging impact the golf course would have on the protected sites and nature found within it, but these were not seen as important enough by a majority of Councillors on the Planning Committee to refuse the plans.
The Conservation Coalition is extremely disappointed and very concerned by Highland Council’s decision to grant permission for the plans and is now calling on Scottish Ministers to step in to save Coul Links from development.
This is the second time in five years that Highland Council have decided to support a golf course at Coul Links against officers’ advice and despite the plans being overwhelmingly opposed. The last development was ultimately turned down by Scottish Ministers in 2020 due to the detrimental impact it would have had on nature.
Ian Dunn, CEO of Plantlife
From our work deep in the forests of the Caledonian Pine woods to the wild north coast – species are at the very heart of what we do.
As governments continue to undervalue grasslands, Plantlife is calling on policymakers to help farmers make sustainable choices.
The Conservation Coalition urge Ministers to step in and save Coul Links as Highland Council votes to grant permission for the golf course.
Lizzie Wilberforce
Britain’s waxcap grasslands are considered to be some of the best in Europe.
Discover the pressures these colourful fungi and their habitats face, and how you can take action to protect them for the future.
The autumn spectacle of multicoloured waxcaps is an important indicator of ancient grasslands that have been unploughed for decades, and which are rich in carbon and soil biodiversity.
Unfortunately, many of these irreplaceable grassland fungi sites continue to disappear under tree planting, new houses, intensive farming, transport infrastructure and more. It is certain that many more are also lost unseen, because of a series of interlinked issues that place the conservation of fungi far behind that of other taxa like mammals and birds.
The first, and perhaps most important, is the shortage of skilled field surveyors able to identify and record fungi (known as mycologists). Fortunately, there does seem to be an increasing interest in fungi amongst the public. The 1,500 members of Plantlife’s #WaxcapWatch Facebook page is a reflection of this, and is very encouraging.
However, the number of people working professionally as field surveyors remains very low. Most ecological consultancies, who undertake survey work to protect wildlife during development, don’t employ mycologists.
This lack of expert recorders and recording means that we still have very little data describing the distribution of fungal species across large parts of the country, especially compared to other taxa.
There is huge pressure on land use today. We need land for farming, for tree planting, for renewable power generation, for housing: the list goes on. Our ability to deliver nature’s recovery depends on us making good decisions when planning these activities. That in turn ensures that nature is protected, and actually restored, in line with government targets and policies.
However, picture this: plans are afoot to build a large new housing estate on formerly sheep-grazed agricultural land. Ecological surveys are required. However, a search of databases doesn’t reveal any fungal records, because no field mycologists have ever visited the land.
The ecological consultancy visits the site in summer, because that’s when plants, birds and mammals are best surveyed. They don’t employ a mycologist. The plants in the fields aren’t that interesting- and so the proposal gets the go ahead. In fact, the fields are incredibly rich in waxcaps, but nobody knows, and nobody looks. The site is lost without ever being recognised for its biodiversity.
This is a very real problem that Plantlife is currently observing in multiple cases across Wales at present. Fungal surveys are difficult to do, and often considered unreasonably burdensome for developers, even for large projects. As a result, we are losing precious ancient grasslands before we’ve even been able to recognise them for what they are. You can’t compensate for an impact on something you never knew was there.
It’s also likely to be an increasing problem in the coming years with large infrastructure projects being planned. For example, in Wales there is a huge amount of work scheduled to reinforce our electricity supply grid, with new cabling going in across the country. Julie James MS, the Minister for Climate Change in Wales, said in 2023 the presumption will be that new cables will be underground, to reduce the visual impact. Will the impact on fungi be adequately identified and mitigated? At present, that seems unlikely.
All is not lost, and there are many things we can do to address this problem.
The fight is not over, and it’s not lost, so join us in our efforts to get ancient waxcap grasslands recognised and better protected for the future.
Protect grassland fungi by taking part in the #WaxcapWatch
As the UK’s new government ministers settle into their new departments, we are calling for action to preserve and restore nature for wildlife, people and the climate.
We depend on Plants and Fungi, however their future depends on what elected politicians do for nature. Use your vote to give plants and fungi a voice at the 2024 general election.
It’s not just trees that capture and store carbon – our meadows and grasslands can play an important role too.
Nitrogen in the air is one of the greatest threats to our wild plants, lichens and fungi – yet few people have even heard about it.
Plantlife is working with governments, landowners and other partners to tackle its devastating impacts.
The evidence is clear. Nitrogen has built up in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels and intensive farming. Transport, power stations, industry, farm fertilisers and livestock are all major sources of nitrogen oxides and ammonia emissions.
Deposited directly from the air and in rain, this nitrogen is a form of pollution, creating acidic conditions and causing direct damage to our wild plants, lichens and fungi.
Over two thirds of our wild flowers, plants like Harebell Campanula rotundifolia and Betony Betonica officinalis require low or medium levels of nitrogen. Only robust species, such as Nettle Urtica dioica, Cleavers Galium aparine and Hemlock Conium maculatum thrive in soils with high nitrogen levels.
Species-rich grasslands, woodlands, heathlands and peat bogs are all under threat from air pollution. This even reaches remote mountain tops and the rainforest of Scotland’s west coast as they have higher levels of nitrogen-rich rainfall.
Alarmingly, 68% of sensitive habitat area in the UK has excessive levels of nitrogen – in England and Wales alone, this figure rises to more than 93% (Trends Report 2022, published on the UK-AIR website).
Reducing air pollution will have huge benefits for biodiversity as well as public health and our climate. Ammonia emissions from farming need particular attention as they have fallen so little in recent decades compared to other air pollutants.
Armed with powerful evidence and practical solutions, Plantlife is ‘talking about nitrogen’ with governments and partners across the UK to drive forward the action that is so urgently needed.
This report summarises current evidence and raises awareness of where nitrogen is coming from, the impacts on habitats, plants and fungi, and how it is recorded.
A call to protect Wales’ internationally important wild flora and fungi from air pollution. This report focuses on the less well-known issue of ammonia pollution arising from intensive farming.
This report presents the available evidence on atmospheric nitrogen deposition and its impacts on Scotland’s plants and fungi and the wildlife that depend on them.
After a big government announcement, our experts have been delving into the details on the latest funding changes for farmers.
Discover how Plantlife is working with governments to protect and restore temperate rainforest along the Atlantic coast of Britain.
Learn how you can make an impact on Scotland's new Natural Environment Bill, putting wild plants at the heart of plans for nature recovery.
The State of Nature Report 2023 is the latest go-to resource for information on how our species and ecosystems are faring in Wales, and across the UK.
Drawing on the best available data, the report acts as a stock-take for our wildlife, painting a picture of how the natural world is doing in response to the numerous pressures it faces.
The report headlines are alarming – calling for decisive and urgent action to protect our species.
Here’s a closer look at some of the headlines from the report, what they mean for our species and habitats in Wales, and what we at Plantlife are doing to make a difference:
1. Of 3908 species [all taxa] that have been assessed – 18% are threatened with extinction from Wales
This means that almost 1 in 5 species are at risk of being lost forever.
When we lose species to extinction, it undermines our ecosystem’s ability to adapt and respond to environmental pressures. For this reason, recovering species is one of our strategic missions at Plantlife.
We achieve this mission in partnerships through funded species recovery projects, such as Natur Am Byth, and through targeted interventions that support declining priority species, such as our work on Fen Orchid, Tree Lungwort and Yellow Marsh Orchid.
2. Plant species associated with upland habitats like bogs and heathlands have declined.
As temperatures rise, plants that are adapted to live in the cooler upland areas have two options: they can either move further north or move higher up into the mountains. However, for species with fragmented populations, northward expansion is impossible, and so their only choice is to move to higher ground where the temperature is cooler.
Without intervention, these species will eventually have nowhere else to go, and they could be lost from Wales completely.
This is one of the reasons that the arctic-alpine plant community has been selected as a priority for the Natur Am Byth project. The Tlysau Mynydd Eryri (Mountain Jewels of Snowdonia) project sets out an action plan to directly intervene and save these vulnerable alpine plants.
Other pressures threatening upland plant communities are the expansion of coniferous woodland plantations, inappropriate grazing patterns and excessive levels of air pollution.
We are working to address these threats holistically, through direct intervention, influencing land management practices and wider advocacy work to ensure policies and legislation help address these threats.
3. The flora of Wales is changing – there has been a decrease in the distribution range of 42% of vascular plant species.
In order to bolster and support our plant species, we target our work where its most needed.
The majority of our species-rich grasslands have been destroyed since the 1940s, and they are now among Great Britain’s rarest habitats. This is despite grasslands having the potential to contain the greatest number of species per square metre of any habitat, and store large amounts of carbon securely in their soils.
Our new Glaswelltiroedd Gwydn (Resilient Grasslands) project seeks to improve the health of our grasslands in protected sites across Wales, supporting species to recover and thrive.
We are also calling on governments in England, Scotland, and Wales to take a strategic approach to grasslands and meaningfully incorporate them into climate and nature policy, in order to achieve national and international targets.
Although many of the headlines can seem bleak, the State of Nature report serves as a call to action.
Rather than becoming demotivated, the direction that this report provides should act as a catalyst to produce positive change where it’s most needed.
Armed with this knowledge, we will continue taking proactive steps to support our species and help them recover wherever we can.
Read more about the State of Nature report 2023 and how you can use your voice to call for action for our wild plants and fungi now.
Discover how Wales’ flagship green recovery project Natur am Byth! is helping to unravel the mystery of a vanishing lichen.
It’s waxcap season in the Upper Ystwyth and Plantlife’s Sheena Duller explains why fungi and farming can go so well together.
A new stock-take of the UK’s wildlife has revealed continued declines in our biodiversity, with over half of our flowering plants declining in their range since 1970.
The ‘State of Nature 2023’ report is the most comprehensive set of reports on nature across the four UK nations, based on the latest and best data collated by thousands of skilled volunteers.
The startling data has renewed calls from Plantlife and its partners for urgent action for nature’s recovery by governments and across society.
…have declined in distribution across Great Britain since 1970. Also:
The reports also show that nature restoration projects, such as those delivered by Plantlife, and the shift towards nature-friendly farming can have clear benefits for nature, people and planet.
15% of flowering plant and 26% of bryophyte species increased their distribution thanks to nature restoration projects such as Building Resilience and Restoring Fen Orchid.
We need more of this work, on a bigger scale, now.
Plantlife and its partners are calling on all governments and political parties to put nature’s recovery at the heart of their policies as a matter of priority.
Nature is in crisis. Time is running out.We can’t wait any longer: we know the solutions and our politicians must act now.Use your voice to call for action for our wild plants and fungi now.
Here are some actions you can take:
Nature can’t wait.
Reverse the Red
We know there are some endangered animal species in the world, but did you know some of our plants are also threatened by extinction?
The good news is saving them is possible. Here are three plants species that are endangered in Scotland and the work that’s being done to bring them back from the brink of extinction.
The ultimate northerner in our flora, Scottish Primrose Primula scotica grows on coastal headlands on the north coast, including Dunnet Head, the northernmost tip of mainland – but is found nowhere else in the world. Low-growing and easily overlooked, this tiny flower which only grows a few centimetres tall – calls clifftops, mosaics of heath and machair, and rocky outcrops home.
The county flower of Caithness, Scottish Primrose can only reproduce through seeds and is known to flower twice a year, once in the early spring and again in the summer. It is easily distinguished from the common primrose by its blueish-purple petals.
Scottish Primroses greatest threat is inappropriate grazing, as it declined historically to cultural intensification. However, climate change poses just as great a challenge as it is a species that is sensitive to climate extremes.
Incidentally, species that are found in such a small area will inevitably be in danger of becoming endangered. Unfortunately, long term trends show a steep decline in Scottish Primrose populations – that’s why the Species on the Edge project has identified it as one of its key species. Our North Coast team is focused on working to grow current populations, ensuring that this beautiful rarity is not lost.
Every year in late summer, in a handful of scattered locations, constellations of one of our rarest flowers blink into life across the moors. Once much more widespread, Marsh Saxifrage Saxifraga hirculus in Scotland has now retreated to only six places, all of them remote, far-flung, and one of them on Plantlife’s Munsary Peatlands nature reserve in Caithness.
Favouring damp, nutrient-poor areas with good water flow, marsh saxifrage is an attractive plant with bright yellow flowers which appear through August and into mid-September. Where it does cling on, it can flower in great profusion, with over 1000 flowering shoots at Munsary in some years making this population the largest in Scotland.
Changes in land use, such as afforestation, over-grazing and the draining of moorland, have led to major losses of this beautiful plant. Its extinction in Austria, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, and its dramatic decline in Britain and across Europe, led to its protection under the European Union’s EC Habitats Directive.
Marsh Saxifrage can recover when conditions are right – the population at Munsary was only discovered in 2002. Plantlife has been involved in its conservation for a number of years, and it seems that this appearance was in response to a drop in grazing levels, with the plant having been hanging on undetected for many years.
Growing almost exclusively in the native Caledonian pine forests of Scotland, Twinflower has suffered as these magnificent forests have been lost. Reduced to a handful of fragments, the pine forests are a shadow of their former selves, and are isolated from each other, scattered as small islands of woodland through the Highland landscape.
This loss of the forests means the loss of the Twinflower. Its populations have become so fragmented and isolated from each other that the distances are too great for its pollinators, which it relies on to produce viable seed. As a result, the remaining populations have become vulnerable to extinctions, with none of the genetic resilience that pollination can bring.
This genetic isolation makes the remaining plants susceptible to disease and changing environmental conditions. In the long-term, if it can’t reproduce, the species will be lost from Scotland.
Plantlife is working on the Cairngorms Rare Plants and Wild Connections project with partners to restore the forests and help the Twinflower re-establish itself. To achieve this, we are undertaking translocations of genetically different patches of the flower to areas near to each other to allow pollination to occur. This is being done with the help of volunteers and in partnership with landowners across the national park.
Our species are the fundamental parts of biodiversity – the more species there are in a habitat, the more diverse that habitat is. It is this diversity that allows ecosystems to function healthily and be more resilient.
This means, when we lose species to extinction, it undermines our ecosystem’s ability to adapt and respond to climate change and other existential threats. This is the primary reason why recovering species is one of our priorities at Plantlife. With partners, Plantlife plan to recover 100 plant species, and move them out of high extinction risk categories, into lower risk categories.
We are proud supporters of the global Reverse the Red campaign – a movement dedicated to spotlighting all of the work that’s being done to try and stop extinctions and prevent further species decline.
Tune in across the month to find out more about the species that we and our partners are working on to Reverse the Red and fight back against extinction.
The beautiful mountain plant, Rosy Saxifrage, has returned to the wild in Wales after becoming extinct in 1962.
Discover the gnarled woodlands on the wildest peaks in Wales, as Robbie Blackhall-Miles reveals the secrets of Eryri’s miniature but magical Juniper forests.
The Wild Leek has been a symbol of Wales for so long that its stories date back to St David himself.
Erin Shott
Clean Air Day is a chance to look at the impact of air pollution, not just on our physical and mental health, but the overall health of our natural environment.
Air pollution often poses the biggest danger to internationally rare habitats.
68% of our most sensitive habitats are impacted by excess nitrogen, like the temperate rainforests found along the west coast of Britain.
Thriving in areas where there is a high annual rainfall with relatively constant temperatures, our temperate rainforests are full of wonder and mossy goodness, capturing imaginations and lifting spirits of visitors.
However, they are more than just woodlands; it’s a mosaic of trees, open glades, crags, ravines, rocks and gorges. With surfaces absolutely bursting with liches, mosses, liverworts and a variety of fungi; they support a vast array of insects, birds and other wildlife, absorb carbon and slow the flow of floodwaters.
Nitrogen gases in air pollution have the potential to destroy these beautiful places. This pollution can take the form of ammonia emissions from farm manures and fertilisers, or nitrogen oxide emissions from fossil fuels.
Even rainforest areas far from the source of pollution, such as the northwest coast of Scotland, are affected by this threat as it can travel long distances in the atmosphere.
In fact, data shows that most areas of temperate rainforest in Britain have exceeded what is known as critical load. Critical load refers to the maximum amount of pollutants that something (either a person or habitat) can be exposed to before significant harmful impacts start to occur.
This map shows how the temperate rainforest zone (the area in which we would expect to see temperate rainforest sites) has been impacted by this overabundance of nitrogen from ongoing air pollution. Almost all of the rainforest in England and Wales – and almost half in Scotland – has exceeded the critical load. In total, 66% of the zone has exceeded critical load, and in many areas of England and Wales the overabundance of nitrogen goes way beyond this threshold.
Impacts of nitrogen pollution will soon be evident as trees within the rainforest will temporarily show increased growth from extra nitrogen.
However, in the long term, any growth will soon stagnate as the earth becomes saturated with excess nitrogen (more than 94% of woodlands are affected UK wide!). Higher nitrogen levels mean trees will often suffer from discoloration and increased vulnerability to drought, frost, and disease like acute oak decline.
Woodland fungi are no exception to impacts of air pollution, as many are closely associated with tree roots and health.
Their loss will result in a further decline of tree species, leading to increasing carbon emissions and further contributing to the ongoing climate crisis.
A change in flora is sure to follow an increase in air pollution as tougher nitrogen-tolerant plants, such as nettles and brambles, will outcompete the more sensitive and specialist species within the rainforest. This has a cascading effect on other wildlife which rely on certain wild plants for food, shelter, and reproduction.
Losing species which make up a significant part of the rainforest ground cover, such as mosses and liverworts like Greater Whipwort, reduces the ecosystem’s ability to retain water. This makes the whole area more vulnerable to droughts and floods.
As an essential part of temperate rainforests, many lichens are incredibly sensitive to changes in air quality and require low levels of air pollution to thrive. These lichens provide food, shelter and microhabitats for invertebrates, in addition to contributing to carbon cycling and water retention.
Some rare lichen species are only found in rainforest areas and are being pushed to the brink of extinction. Without lichens, our temperate rainforests would struggle even more to survive.
Tree Lungwort Lobaria spp in particular is an amazing indicator species, as its presence signals that the forest is healthy and functioning as it should. This is because it is a slow growing species that is even more sensitive to air pollution than most other lichens.
Tree Lungwort often can become outcompeted and swamped in nitrogen-tolerant algae, knocking the ecosystem out of balance. When we see populations of lungwort recovering, we know that our air quality is improving and with that, the rainforest.
Hope is not lost! For one, you are reading this and arming yourself with information to pass onto your family and friends. When you take action on air pollution, you’re benefiting wildlife as well as people’s health – making it doubly important!
We are working hard to combat air pollution in parliament and beyond.
Want to take it a step further?
Join us at the Restore Nature Now march in London on 22nd June, to demand that future leaders prioritise nature and biodiversity. We need immediate political action to bring endangered plants and fungi back from the brink of extinction and restore species-rich habitats, like our temperate rainforest.
Find out more information about the march and how you can get involved here.
An incredible story of returning one of England’s rarest lichens to its historic home – more than 350 miles away.
Hazel Gloves Fungus is a priority species on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, learn more about this rainforest fungi this Reverse the Red month.
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.
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