Sound interdisciplinary scientific information underpins decisions and policies affecting plant diversity.
Collaboration and strategic alliances, including local and national organizations outside the SSC, are increasingly used within the plant conservation community to achieve plant conservation success.
Modes of production and consumption that result in the conservation and restoration of plant diversity are adopted by users of plant resources.
SSC's plants policy recommendations, guidelines, and advice are valued, adopted, and implemented by relevant audiences.
Long-lasting, practical solutions to plant conservation problems are markedly increased.
What We Do
Objectives
Activities
Providing Action Plans and practical advices
Programme activities include publishing species Action Plans, and providing sound and practical advice on plant conservation to IUCN and its commissions, international conventions, governments, and any other organizations requiring information that will promote plant conservation.
Promoting the Red List and IUCN policies
The PCS also aims to ensure that IUCN tools (such as the IUCN Red List Categories) and policies are adopted and implemented by conservation professionals and institutions and builds resources to support awareness campaigns on priority issues. It is also committed to helping achieve the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Global Strategy for Plant Conservation to halt the current and continuing loss of plant diversity.
Assessing the status of plant species
SSC’s Plant Specialist Groups and the Plant Red List Authorities have broad ranging tasks including raising awareness of threatened plants within their remit (such as by contributing to the “Top 50” campaign). Their work also involves assessing the conservation status of plant species for inclusion in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Ensuring Sustainable Trade of Wild species
In addition, these groups of experts work to ensure that trade in plant species is sustainable, in collaboration with the SSC Wildlife Trade Programme and CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna). Also see TRAFFIC (the joint wildlife trade monitoring programme of IUCN and WWF)
Identifying Centres of Plant Diversity
Another key area of work has been the identification of Centres of Plant Diversity in conjunction with WWF, which laid the foundation for the identification of global “hotspots”.
