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Against a background of continuing loss of biodiversity, it is argued that for the successful conservation of threatened plant species we need to ensure the more effective integration of the various conservation actions employed, clarify the wording of the CBD targets and provide clearer operational guidance as to how they are to be implemented and their implementation monitored. The role and effectiveness of protected areas in conserving biodiversity and in particular plant species in situ are discussed as are recent proposals for a massive increase of their extent. The need for much greater effort and investment in the conservation or protection of threatened species outside protected areas where most plant diversity occurs is highlighted. The difficulties involved in implementing effective in situ conservation of plant diversity both at an area- and species/population-based level are discussed. The widespread neglect of species recovery for plants is noted and the desirability of making a clearer distinction between species recovery and reintroduction is emphasized. Key messages from a global overview of species recovery are outlined and recommendations made, including the desirability of each country preparing a national species recovery strategy. The projected impacts of global change on protected areas and on species conservation and recovery, and ways of addressing them are discussed. Keywords: Plant conservation, CBD targets, Protected areas, Species recovery, Conservation approaches

As an introduction to the Special Issue on the restoration of threatened plant species and their habitats, this editorial shows how the various papers in the issue address the range of in situ interventions involved in species population management and restoration of their habitat, together with examples of case studies implementing these actions. It stresses the need for integrating these various interventions. It highlights the importance of protected areas in providing a degree of protection for threatened species but also the need to complement this with actions at the species level to ensure the effective conservation and long term persistence of these species. It emphasizes that ecological restoration is a complement to, not a substitute for conservation, and that the balance of effort and allocation of resources between them is a key issue. Keywords: Threatened species management, Habitat restoration, In situ conservation, Protected areas

In light of the growing concern over the potentially devastating impacts on biodiversity and food security of climate change and the massively growing world population, taking action to conserve crop wild relatives (CWR), is no longer an option — it is a priority. Crop wild relatives are species closely related to crops, including their progenitors, many of which have the potential to contribute beneficial traits to crops, such as pest or disease resistance, yield improvement or stability. They are a critical component of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), have already made major contributions to crop production and are vital for future food security; their systematic conservation in ways that ensure their continuing availability for use is therefore imperative. This is a complex, interdisciplinary, global issue that has been addressed by various national and international initiatives. Drawing on the lessons learnt from these initiatives we can now propose a global approach to CWR conservation, the key elements of which are: (1) estimating global CWR numbers, (2) assessment of the global importance of CWR diversity, (3) current conservation status, (4) threats to CWR diversity, (5) systematic approaches to CWR conservation, (6) CWR informatics, and (7) enhancing the use of CWR diversity.

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Conservation of crop wild relatives (CWRs) is a complex interdisciplinary process that is being addressed by various national and international initiatives, including two Global Environment Facility projects ('In situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives through Enhanced Information Management and Field Application' and 'Design, Testing and Evaluation of Best Practices for in situ Conservation of Economically Important Wild Species'), the European Community-funded project 'European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum (PGR Forum)' and the European 'In situ and On Farm Network'. The key issues that have arisen are: (1) the definition of what constitutes a CWR, (2) the need for national and regional information systems and a global system, (3) development and application of priority-determining mechanisms, (4) the incorporation of the conservation of CWRs into existing national, regional and international PGR programmes, (5) assessment of the effectiveness of conservation actions, (6) awareness of the importance of CWRs in agricultural development at local, national and international levels both for the scientific and lay communities and (7) policy development and legal framework. The above issues are illustrated by work on the conservation of a group of legumes known as grasspea chicklings, vetchlings, and horticultural ornamental peas (Lathyrus spp.) in their European and Mediterranean centre of diversity.

In the 1960s Taxon published articles aimed at improving botanical Seed Lists. We compared suggestions made then with the situation in 2007. Sadly the majority of problems raised in the original manuscripts were still evident today. Botanic gardens must improve if this practice is to survive.

(1995). A global strategy for the conservation of plant diversity. Grana: Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 363-366.

The problems of world poverty will not be solved by biotechnology alone, nor by traditional plant breeding or improved agronomic practices but by a combination of all of these and other approaches. We need therefore to adopt a broad approach to our considerations of the links between biodiversity, agrobiodiversity and biotechnology.

In most considerations of plant conservation, scant attention is paid to sampling and conserving the chemical diversity and the underlying genetic diversity found in plant populations. Such diversity is of particular importance when dealing with medicinal and aromatic plants where it is precisely their chemical features, such as alkaloids, essential oils, etc. that are the characteristics for which they are valued. In contrast, a great vast amount of effort has gone into isolating and characterizing these chemical constituents from the limited samples that are traditionally used in phytochemical studies. Conservation of the genetic diversity of medicinal and aromatic plants has generally not received a great deal of attention from the genetic resource agencies or national or regional seedbanks1,2, although they are recognized in principle as an important group3,4, nor is there is great deal of evidence from the industry that this has been seriously addressed. Many seed banks do contain samples of some of these plants, but they are not generally the result of deliberate sampling campaigns. Public concern tends to focus on the benefits that may be derived from medicinal plants and on issues of Safety and the assumption is made that the plant resources will continue to be available although no concerted efforts hace been made to ensure this.

In this paper, I address both the wider issues that affect floristic studies today and how they are likely to develop in the future, and the special problems that concern the Mediterranean region in particular. A survey of published floristic studies is given for the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and the desirability of applying electronic web-based preparation and publication of floristic and taxonomic projects is considered, with special reference to the Euro + Med PlantBase project. A new paradigm for taxonomy, and a plan of action for Mediterranean floristic studies are proposed.

Worldwide there are many thousands of species of higher plants which are used by man and can therefore be considered resources (Heywood 1991). About 5,000 species have been cultivated at one time or another and there are many more which are harvested or used directly from the wild. As an illustration of this, the Plant Resources Project of South-East Asia records over 8,000 species in its basic list of species used by mankind in that area (Lemmens et al., 1989) and assuming similar percentages of the floras of other tropical regions are similarly employed, then we can extrapolate to a figure of 25–30,000 species for the tropics as a whole. In addition several thousand species are used by Man in the temperate regions of the world. Up to 25,000 species have been used in herbal medicines and many thousand species of ornamentals are grown in parks and in public and private gardens and as street trees.