Dr Peter Wyse Jackson recently visited Thailand to speak on plant conservation
Monday October 29, 2007
Stories by NORMITA THONGTHAM
Bangkok Post
We all know that plants provide food, medicine, fuel, clothing and shelter, and play a key role in maintaining the basic ecosystem functions that make life on earth possible.
No one knows exactly how many vascular plant species there are in the world. The current figure is 270,000, but according to Dr Peter Wyse Jackson, there could be as many as 420,000 plant species, as scientists keep finding new species in the wild. This is the good news.
The bad news is that there's a crisis for plants worldwide, he said. "Between 60,000 and 100,000 plant species are now threatened with extinction."
In Thailand alone more than 1,400 species are threatened, "and if the destruction of their natural habitat continues, as many as two-thirds of the world's plants could be threatened by the end of this century."
This is a most frightening prospect, added Jackson, who enumerated forest destruction, agricultural expansion, population growth, unsustainable development, over-consumption of resources, tourism, climate change, mining and fire as threats to plant diversity.
Jackson has been involved with plant conservation for more than 20 years. He established Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), in which he is still involved, in 1987, and developed the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which was unanimously adopted in 2002 by signatories to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. He is currently director of the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, in his native Ireland, and chairman of the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which is a network of major organisations that are supporting the implementation and achievement of the strategy.
Jackson was at the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden (QSBG) in Chiang Mai recently as the keynote speaker at a workshop on plant conservation organised by Dr Suyanee Vessabutr, head of the QSBG's technical and research department, with support from BGCI, led by Bian Tan, BGCI's programme coordinator for Southeast Asia. The workshop was attended by 70 participants from universities, herbaria, botanical gardens, national parks and other government agencies involved in plant conservation.
The Convention on Biological Diversity, of which Thailand was the 188th signatory, was ratified in 1992, but very little action was taken by governments to address the need to conserve biological diversity, Jackson said. "The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation is relevant to every country in the world, and all 189 countries that are signatories to the convention have accepted the strategy as a national priority."
For the first time in the history of conservation, the GSPC set targets to be accomplished by the year 2010. That's only three years from now, or eight years since the inception of the GSPC, but Jackson is confident that some of the key targets will be achieved.
One of the targets is to create a widely accessible checklist of existing plant species, a huge task considering that the 270,000 species now known to science have 900,000 scientific names. Jackson said that by the end of this year the list will be 60 per cent complete, and it is possible that by 2010 it will be finished and made available on the Internet.
The compilation of the checklist is led by major institutions working in cooperation with herbaria around the world, including the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, Surrey, Jackson said.
"There is also a target that 60 per cent of threatened plant species will be conserved in botanical gardens, seed banks and tissue culture collections, and that is over 40 per cent completed now.
"One of the targets is for 30 per cent of production land to be managed in a way that is compatible with the conservation of plant diversity. Eleven per cent of the world's forests are now set aside for conservation. There is still some way to go to achieve that target, but we should be encouraged by the progress and in no way be complacent," Jackson said.
Communication, education and the raising of public awareness of the importance of plant diversity are crucial for the achievement of all the targets. Botanical gardens are vital players, not only for biodiversity conservation efforts, but also in providing formal and informal education and raising public awareness, said Bian Tan, a Singapore-based taxonomist whose work involves coordinating environmental education programmes, capacity-building and training workshops, and plant conservation programmes for institutions and botanical gardens in Southeast Asia.
The BGCI is a network of more than 800 botanical gardens in 120 countries whose vision is to see a world in which plant diversity is valued, secure and supporting all life, Tan said. In 2005 the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden and BGCI hosted a regional workshop aimed at assisting staff of botanical gardens to improve their horticultural skills in maintaining their respective plant collections.
BGCI has also provided assistance to Burma's Nature and Wildlife Division to establish an ex-situ living collection of orchid species native to Shan State; for Kunming Botanical Institute in China to breed a rare species of tree and reintroduce it to the wild; and for Hanoi University of Pharmacy to conserve medicinal plants in a national park.
Cambodia has 23 protected areas where the diversity of flora is very rich, but due to lack of botanical knowledge, most of it has yet to be documented and identified, Tan said. BGCI supported a training course to provide officers of the Ministry of Environment with a wide range of botanical knowledge, including plant taxonomy, field survey techniques, pressing, drying and processing voucher specimens, data management in a database and report compilation. As a result of this, a National Plant Team will be developed to conduct botanical and ecological research in protected areas.
The Convention on Biological Diversity has never been meant to stop the movement of biodiversity between countries, said Jackson. One of its objectives is "to ensure that the benefits that come from the use of diversity are shared fairly. But there aren't billions of dollars to be made from biodiversity. There are no pots of gold waiting at the end of the rainbow."
Benefits do not come in monetary terms, but will come through technical cooperation, scientific advances and the use of plants in ways that can support local communities, he added.
"Let's not think of biodiversity as being a cash crop, but as a natural resource that we should safeguard for future generations. In Thailand, the Red Data List of endangered species could be a stimulant for ex-situ conservation programmes involving various institutions and government agencies as well as local communities and ordinary gardeners."
For the programmes to be successful, conservationists should form themselves into a network where it can be agreed who will conserve which endangered species and report to each other what they are doing, Jackson said.
"But clearly there is a need for many more botanical gardens being involved in the conservation of native plants. Some botanical gardens now focus on growing their native plants rather than plants from other countries, and trying to raise local awareness of the beauty and value of local flora."
With the number of botanical institutions in Thailand and throughout the world, and with help from local communities and individuals, there is no excuse for some species going extinct, Jackson said.
"If species do go instinct, it's because we have not made conservation our priority."
Monday October 29, 2007
Stories by NORMITA THONGTHAM
Bangkok Post
We all know that plants provide food, medicine, fuel, clothing and shelter, and play a key role in maintaining the basic ecosystem functions that make life on earth possible.
No one knows exactly how many vascular plant species there are in the world. The current figure is 270,000, but according to Dr Peter Wyse Jackson, there could be as many as 420,000 plant species, as scientists keep finding new species in the wild. This is the good news.
The bad news is that there's a crisis for plants worldwide, he said. "Between 60,000 and 100,000 plant species are now threatened with extinction."
In Thailand alone more than 1,400 species are threatened, "and if the destruction of their natural habitat continues, as many as two-thirds of the world's plants could be threatened by the end of this century."
This is a most frightening prospect, added Jackson, who enumerated forest destruction, agricultural expansion, population growth, unsustainable development, over-consumption of resources, tourism, climate change, mining and fire as threats to plant diversity.
Jackson has been involved with plant conservation for more than 20 years. He established Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), in which he is still involved, in 1987, and developed the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which was unanimously adopted in 2002 by signatories to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. He is currently director of the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, in his native Ireland, and chairman of the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which is a network of major organisations that are supporting the implementation and achievement of the strategy.
Jackson was at the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden (QSBG) in Chiang Mai recently as the keynote speaker at a workshop on plant conservation organised by Dr Suyanee Vessabutr, head of the QSBG's technical and research department, with support from BGCI, led by Bian Tan, BGCI's programme coordinator for Southeast Asia. The workshop was attended by 70 participants from universities, herbaria, botanical gardens, national parks and other government agencies involved in plant conservation.
The Convention on Biological Diversity, of which Thailand was the 188th signatory, was ratified in 1992, but very little action was taken by governments to address the need to conserve biological diversity, Jackson said. "The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation is relevant to every country in the world, and all 189 countries that are signatories to the convention have accepted the strategy as a national priority."
For the first time in the history of conservation, the GSPC set targets to be accomplished by the year 2010. That's only three years from now, or eight years since the inception of the GSPC, but Jackson is confident that some of the key targets will be achieved.
One of the targets is to create a widely accessible checklist of existing plant species, a huge task considering that the 270,000 species now known to science have 900,000 scientific names. Jackson said that by the end of this year the list will be 60 per cent complete, and it is possible that by 2010 it will be finished and made available on the Internet.
The compilation of the checklist is led by major institutions working in cooperation with herbaria around the world, including the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, Surrey, Jackson said.
"There is also a target that 60 per cent of threatened plant species will be conserved in botanical gardens, seed banks and tissue culture collections, and that is over 40 per cent completed now.
"One of the targets is for 30 per cent of production land to be managed in a way that is compatible with the conservation of plant diversity. Eleven per cent of the world's forests are now set aside for conservation. There is still some way to go to achieve that target, but we should be encouraged by the progress and in no way be complacent," Jackson said.
Communication, education and the raising of public awareness of the importance of plant diversity are crucial for the achievement of all the targets. Botanical gardens are vital players, not only for biodiversity conservation efforts, but also in providing formal and informal education and raising public awareness, said Bian Tan, a Singapore-based taxonomist whose work involves coordinating environmental education programmes, capacity-building and training workshops, and plant conservation programmes for institutions and botanical gardens in Southeast Asia.
The BGCI is a network of more than 800 botanical gardens in 120 countries whose vision is to see a world in which plant diversity is valued, secure and supporting all life, Tan said. In 2005 the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden and BGCI hosted a regional workshop aimed at assisting staff of botanical gardens to improve their horticultural skills in maintaining their respective plant collections.
BGCI has also provided assistance to Burma's Nature and Wildlife Division to establish an ex-situ living collection of orchid species native to Shan State; for Kunming Botanical Institute in China to breed a rare species of tree and reintroduce it to the wild; and for Hanoi University of Pharmacy to conserve medicinal plants in a national park.
Cambodia has 23 protected areas where the diversity of flora is very rich, but due to lack of botanical knowledge, most of it has yet to be documented and identified, Tan said. BGCI supported a training course to provide officers of the Ministry of Environment with a wide range of botanical knowledge, including plant taxonomy, field survey techniques, pressing, drying and processing voucher specimens, data management in a database and report compilation. As a result of this, a National Plant Team will be developed to conduct botanical and ecological research in protected areas.
The Convention on Biological Diversity has never been meant to stop the movement of biodiversity between countries, said Jackson. One of its objectives is "to ensure that the benefits that come from the use of diversity are shared fairly. But there aren't billions of dollars to be made from biodiversity. There are no pots of gold waiting at the end of the rainbow."
Benefits do not come in monetary terms, but will come through technical cooperation, scientific advances and the use of plants in ways that can support local communities, he added.
"Let's not think of biodiversity as being a cash crop, but as a natural resource that we should safeguard for future generations. In Thailand, the Red Data List of endangered species could be a stimulant for ex-situ conservation programmes involving various institutions and government agencies as well as local communities and ordinary gardeners."
For the programmes to be successful, conservationists should form themselves into a network where it can be agreed who will conserve which endangered species and report to each other what they are doing, Jackson said.
"But clearly there is a need for many more botanical gardens being involved in the conservation of native plants. Some botanical gardens now focus on growing their native plants rather than plants from other countries, and trying to raise local awareness of the beauty and value of local flora."
With the number of botanical institutions in Thailand and throughout the world, and with help from local communities and individuals, there is no excuse for some species going extinct, Jackson said.
"If species do go instinct, it's because we have not made conservation our priority."
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