| Danthonia:
The newsletter of the Australian
Network for Plant Conservation Inc.
|
 |
Information | Submitting Material |
Subscribing | Previous issues |
Back
to Home
Volume 7, Number 1, June 1998
The contents of this issue are as follows. Only selected articles are reproduced
here in full. For further information, or to obtain copies of the full issue,
please contact us.
- Plants and the
IUCN Species Survival Commission
- The 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants....
- Black Hill Flora Recovery Team - Recent Progress
- Measuring the Impact of Environmental Weeds on Biodiversity: a Study of
Bridal Creeper and the Endangered Native, Pimelea spicata
- Update on Hakea pulvinifera
- Regional Groups
- SENSW/ACT
- Tasmania
- NSW Western Slopes
- Sydney
- NSW South West Slopes
- Plus News, Conferences, Courses, Publications,
Electronic Addresses and more!
Plants
and the IUCN Species Survival Commission
David Given,
Chair IUCN Species Survival Commission's Plant Conservation Subcommittee,
Christchurch, New Zealand
About a year ago the ANPC agreed to become a Specialist Group of the Species
Survival Commission (SSC) of the IUCN - The World Conservation Union. The
Commission is a global network linking some 8000 conservation specialists
and enthusiasts through a network of interest groups (Specialist Groups).
Although many are taxonomically based, an increasing number are (like ANPC)
regional in nature. In addition there are several disciplinary groups covering
areas such as invasive species, captive breeding and re-introductions.
The SSC plant programme is coordinated by the Commission's Plant Conservation
Subcommittee (PCS) and its key phrase is `Bringing plants to the heart of
conservation'. The vision of the PCS is `a world where plants lie at the
heart of biodiversity convention initiatives, underpin the implementation
of sustainable development programmes, and attract a greater share of financial
and other resources to their study and conservation'. The PCS itself is
currently made up of eighteen hard-working plant conservationists representing
a wide range of regions, disciplines and institutions. It meets annually
and between meetings members continue to work by email. Wendy Strahm is
the full-time Plants Officer for SSC, based in Switzerland. Important components
of the plant work of SSC are the plant Specialist Groups, of which there
are29, with an increasing number being geographically-based.
What are some of the major issues?
- `Plantlink' Initiative: The focus is to bring plants into other
aspects of conservation, especially that undertaken on animals, with an
increasing focus on ecosystem management - conserving the ecosystems where
plants live, recognising and studying plant-animal linkages such as pollination
systems, and encouraging joint animal-plant meetings.
- 'Top-50' Initiative: A concept developed by Dr Charles Stirton
(previous chair of the PCS), the idea of the 'Top-50' is to select 50
taxa of conservation concern or interest from a wide range of taxonomic
groups, regions and habitats. Pilot schemes are being run for Ferns and
for the Canary Islands, and we are looking at ways of developing the concept
further.
- Sustainable Use Initiatives: The WCMC/SSC Conservation and Sustainable
Use of Trees Project has been completed and a World List of Threatened
Trees is now almost ready for publication. This lists more than 6,000
species, or about a tenth of the world's trees. There are a considerable
number of plant-based sustainable use initiatives under way and we are
looking at ways of linking the SSC network with the best of these. [Ed.
WCMC is the World Conservation Monitoring Centre].
- Red Listing of Plants: The first global listing of threatened
plants, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants was launched at several
international sites (including Canberra) on 8 April. The next step is
to assess plant species using the new threat criteria, following their
current review and assessment of pilot project use on a range of plants
and animals. [See page 4 of this issue].
- Action Plans: The Cactus and Succulent Plants: Status Survey
and Conservation Action Plan has been recently published and several plant
action plans are under preparation.
- Information Technology: There are major changes occurring and
we are seeing the advent of meta-database systems which can be accessed
on highly portable equipment in any part of the world. One of our problems
is that much existing software has been biased towards animals and their
particular characteristics (especially mammals and birds). SSC has a number
of initiatives in train at the present time and is maintaining links to
the global Biodiversity Conservation Information System (BCIS) initiative.
We need to be constantly innovative in use of technology and there are
some good examples of this emerging. eg. a recent CD-ROM for the cycads,
which suggests that perhaps all Specialist Groups could be funded to produce
a CD-ROM version of their Action Plans or their 'Top-50' set.
- Regionalisation: We see regionalisation as important, but in
determining which regions are a priority plant conservationists need to
ensure that selected 'biodiversity hotspots' reflect plant interests.
This is where the work of groups such as ANPC is so important.
- Spreading the Word: Apart from the web site, PCS is committed
to doing this through a variety of media. As I write this we are just
finishing a 24 page plant supplement for World Conservation, the flagship
publication of IUCN. PCS has supported in principle new editions of Plants
in Danger - what do we know and Wild Plants and the Law, and we are looking
at greater opportunities to link with local and international conferences.
The Plant Conservation Subcommittee's Web Page address is:
http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/our_work/plants/indexplants.htm
The 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened
Plants - the first global list of the world’s threatened flora
Jeanette Mill
National Coordinator, ANPC
Chair, IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Australasian Plant Specialist Group.
An event of global significance for threatened plants occurred on 9th April
1998 Australian time. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants was launched
with events held in Canberra, London, Cape Town and Washington.
The publication (over 900 pages) is the first attempt to list all vascular
plant species known to be globally threatened or extinct. Ferns, fern-allies,
gymnosperms and flowering plants are covered, but not the lower plants, such
as fungi, mosses and lichens. Of the estimated 270,000 known species of vascular
plants, 33,798 of these, or 12.5%, are listed as globally threatened or extinct.
Of these, 91% are limited in their distribution to a single country.
The pre-1994 IUCN Threat Categories are used. ie. Extinct (Ex), Extinct/Endangered
(Ex/E), Endangered (E), Vulnerable (V) Rare (R) and Indeterminate (I). The
term 'Threatened' covers all categories except Ex.
Numbers of species globally threatened or extinct by threat category.
-
| Threat Category |
Ex |
Ex/E |
E |
V |
R |
I |
Total |
% of flora |
| World |
380 |
371 |
6,522 |
7,951 |
14,504 |
4,070 |
33,798 |
12.5# |
| Australia |
71 |
|
246 |
630 |
1,366 |
3 |
2,316 |
14.8* |
# Calculated against a world flora of 270,000 species * Calculated against
a flora of 15,638 species
Extinction figures are arguably a conservative estimate, as only recorded
extinctions are listed.
The countries which were able to provide complete data sets are among those
listed as having the highest percentage of their flora globally threatened.
These are Australia with 14.4% (14.8% including extinct species), South
Africa with 9.5 % and USA with 29%.
Islands, with their greater degree of risk due often to higher rates of
endemism, ranked among those countries with the highest percentage of species
threatened. eg Mauritius (39.2%), Seychelles (31.2%) and St Helena (41.2%).
The List was generated from the Threatened Plants Database of the World
Conservation Monitoring Centre, and is the culmination of around 30 years
of data gathering from thousands of sources. However it represents the "tip
of the iceberg" as there are still enormous gaps in taxonomic, distributional
and conservation information, particularly from parts of Africa, Asia, the
Carribean and South America. In addition, if data were only available for
part of the known range of a species, the species was not included in the
listing, even if it was suspected of being threatened.
Another important aspect not captured by the data, but noted in the Introduction
as representing a much worse conservation scenario, is that of "genetic
erosion and diminishing genetic diversity at the population level".
The urgency for filling these knowledge gaps is highlighted by this publication.
One of the major purposes quoted for the production of red lists (once
called ROTAP* lists, now ANZECC lists, in Australia, one of the pioneering
countries in developing these), is "To motivate people to participate
in conservation networks, actions, and educational programs".
They are also described as the "unspectacular but indispensable root
system from which true judgement and real conservation can grow."
* Rare or Threatened Australian Plants.
Reference:
Walter, K. S. and Gillett, H. J. [eds] 1998, 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened
Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. IUCN -
The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. lxiv
+ 862pp. Available from IUCN Publications Services Unit, 219c Huntington
Road, Cambridge, CB3 0DL, UK. Email: iucn-psu@wcmc.org.uk.
Website: http://www.iucn.org
Lyn Meredith,
Biodiversity Group, Environment Australia
Australia is fortunate in being a well botanised country. Yet the last revision
of ROTAP listed 2,376 taxa that were considered to be too poorly known to
assign to a conservation category. The 'poorly known' figure for many countries
would be huge.
Australia is listed among the 32 countries that have at least 5% of their
native flora threatened, with a figure of 14.4%. Even though the editors of
the List used a lower number of taxa (15,638) than most Australian workers
would consider representative of the total national flora, the true figure
must still be around 12%. If we remove all oceanic islands, such as Mauritius,
from the world equation, such islands having experienced a vast reduction
in their native floras, only USA, Turkey and Spain have a higher percentage
of their floras threatened.
The editors also point out that the three countries providing complete electronic
data sets (including Australia) are also listed as having the highest percentage
of their national flora threatened. I would suggest that this reflects the
accuracy of information. We know more about our flora and are able to access
our information more readily than many other countries that may have very
little data recorded.
The list is not intended to indicate what, if anything, is being done about
the problems. But it should be said that the Australian Federal Government
alone is spending $16 million on the conservation of threatened species and
ecological communities, and state governments and NGOs are adding to that
sum. It is never enough, of course, and it will take years before we will
see the results of much of this spending. But we are making a difference.
The 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants helps us put our efforts into
a global perspective.
Note: Information for Australia was supplied from Environment Australia's
National Threatened Flora Database.
|
