More Than One-Fifth of World's Plants Face Threat of Extinction, New Analysis Finds

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2010) — A global analysis of extinction risk for the world's plants, conducted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew together with the Natural History Museum, London and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has revealed that the world's plants are as threatened as mammals, with one in five of the world's plant species threatened with extinction.

The study is a major baseline for plant conservation and is the first time that the true extent of the threat to the world's estimated 380,000 plant species is known, announced as governments are to meet in Nagoya, Japan in mid-October 2010 to set new targets at the United Nations Biodiversity Summit.

Scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Natural History Museum and IUCN Specialist Groups carried out the Sampled Red List Index assessments on a representative sample of the world's plants, in response to the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity and the 2010 Biodiversity Target. The work relied heavily on the vast repository of botanical information held in Kew's Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives, which includes some eight million preserved plant and fungal specimens; on specimens held in the Natural History Museum's own extensive herbarium of six million specimens; on digital data from other sources and on collaboration with Kew's network of partners worldwide. The results of the Sampled Red List Index for Plants are being launched at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew at a press call on Sept. 28, 2010.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's Director, Professor Stephen Hopper, says: "This study confirms what we already suspected, that plants are under threat and the main cause is human induced habitat loss.

"For the first time we have a clear global picture of extinction risk to the world's known plants. This report shows the most urgent threats and the most threatened regions. In order to answer crucial questions like how fast are we losing species and why, and what we can do about it, we need to establish a baseline so that we have something against which to measure change. The Sampled Red List Index for Plants does exactly that by assessing a large sample of plant species that are collectively representative of all the world's plants."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100928193452.htm

[IndianaJoe]

1. Not good at all. Once more we're our own enemy. n/t

[pscot]

2. We face the threat of extinctio.....

But we don't want to talk about it.