Australian Network for Plant Conservation

Sharing the Vision

1997 Conference Outcomes

Following is a summary of the outcomes of the conference workshops. Major recommendations are highlighted and italicised. Please contact the ANPC National Office if you have any comments, queries or suggestions regarding the outcomes.

Overall Direction

The delegates commended the Translocation and Germplasm Working Groups for the production of the Guidelines for the Translocation of Threatened Plants in Australia and Germplasm Conservation Guidelines for Australia.

The ANPC should distribute the Guidelines, encourage their use, and seek feedback . Working Groups should continue, and the Guidelines be developed and revised as required.

The ANPC should continue the production of guidelines, manuals and best practice packages for integrated plant conservation activities in Australia. These should include case studies, project planning, and community consultation. This is seen as necessary to avoid inappropriate conservation actions, and to promote information exchange and community involvement.

The ANPC should continue to facilitate ANZECC/IUCN endorsement/support.

The ANPC should form a working group of suitably qualified members to produce guidelines for in situ management. These guidelines should have a focus of ecosystem management and be used in advance of the need to translocate threatened flora. They should include:

case studies
international work
fire research applications
survey methods for different ecologically functioning groups
management techniques to be applied and when they should be applied
community consultation and involvement

Funding

How the ANPC can assist with funding

Guidelines and other information on funding applications and sources

Encourage top down strategic resource allocation and continuity of funding

Germplasm

How the ANPC can assist with Germplasm Storage

Coordination and communication, including

operational information
research and technology development
community involvement
effective planning
projects and objectives
facilitating debate on purpose and use of germplasm banks
incorporating threatened species and principles into broader scale revegetation/remnant vegetation conservation work

Education and training (see major heading Education and Training)

Promotion

need for storage resources
publicise work so far
encourage national and state support and commitment for germplasm storage

Develop the National Endangered Flora Collection

Policy Development

national policy
criteria for appropriate taxa, priorities etc

Multiple Storage Site Selection

identify potential and existing sites and facilities
develop criteria for possible duplicate sites
involve regional groups for single species storage

Databases

database for all sites
uniformity nationally

Funding (see also major heading on funding).

selling technology
sharing facilities

How the ANPC can assist in addressing exploitation of Australian Flora

Input into and networking of protocol/policy/regulation development

ownership of genetic material

Information/education/networking/guidelines, including targeting relevant groups

Develop role and use of cultivation

Involve botanic gardens in germplasm exploitation

Information

The following information was considered necessary for the community to be positively involved in plant conservation (with underlying principles that information must be user friendly and there must be a regional focus where appropriate):

priority list of species and threatening processes in different regions
education on natural and unnatural processes
working to an action plan - including legal requirements
ecological and biological information
plant identification
sampling
monitoring
survey and experimental design
collecting and managing data

Revisit the Information Working Group Report and Recommendations. Items for consideration include:

data gathering
data dissemination
standardised data manual
sources of information (directory)
development of a metadatabase

Develop the ANPC WWW page (including hyperlinks), and email discussion groups

Education and Training

Promote and develop general public education strategies

Continue to develop and conduct the Threatened Plant Conservation Techniques Course, workshops and seminars. Provide information about training, and promote and develop training materials. Include the following topics: seed ecology, plant identification, sampling, monitoring, collecting and storing germplasm, ecology, biology, survey and experimental design, collecting and managing data, funding. Materials could include slide kits, CD ROM and video.

Continue to produce Danthonia, the ANPC newsletter, on a quarterly basis.

Promote the ANPC and plant conservation

within membership of all ANPC activities
through the media

Translocation

The ANPC should continue to play a role regarding translocation. Ways this could be achieved include:

assessing proposals
input into policy development
strategies for community involvement
development of a case studies manual
establishing a translocation register
guiding translocation trials and publishing results to assist in development of techniques.

Regional Groups

ANPC Regional Groups are considered to be successful in achieving networks and forums to discuss plant conservation at a local level.

Increase Regional Groups, and develop their role in fulfilling the objectives of the ANPC:

through current groups extending their boundaries to include adjoining areas, and then form new groups from these participants
targeted areas for regional group establishment should be those areas with greatest need for increased support for and activity in plant conservation.

Community

The ANPC's role in assisting the community to understand and become involved in plant conservation can be achieved through:

use of guidelines
education
local government
workshops/regional group meetings including visits from high profile experts, field days
networking with and through local centres, events and groups
Website
annual calender of events
member attendance at relevant forums
assisting groups in preparing funding applications
promoting integration between agencies and community in recovery programs

The types of activities ANPC members could partake in are:

education and extension
field surveys
ecological monitoring
seed collection and propagation

Poorly Known Flora

The conference supports the listing of state and national flora through a consistent set of IUCN-based criteria. It is recognised that such listing and categorisation is dependent on sufficient information being available for each taxon. In the absence of sufficient information, taxa may only be listed as poorly known or data deficient.

The conference is concerned at the large number of poorly known flora in Australia, and the fact that many of these may be at risk of imminent extinction.

Consequently, the conference considers that the survey of poorly known flora is an urgent conservation issue, and recommends that state conservation agencies and commonwealth funding bodies allocate suitable resources to the survey of such poorly known flora.

Updated Thursday, 30-Oct-97 23:45:03 EST, Jeanette Mill