Abstract:
A detailed knowledge of plants is fundamental to human
life on Earth. Plants underpin all aspects of our everyday
life – from the food that we eat, to the clothes that we wear,
the materials we use, the air we breathe, the medicines we
take and much more. These essential services provided by
plants are far too often taken for granted. This is the second
annual report in which we have scrutinised databases,
published literature, policy documents, reports and satellite
imagery to provide a synthesis of current knowledge on the
world’s plants.
Last year, our focus was predominantly on synthesising
knowledge of the numbers of different categories of plants:
How many vascular plants are currently known to science?
How many are threatened with extinction? What is the
number of plants with uses? etc. We also looked at the
main threats to these plants, including climate change, landuse
change, invasive plants, disease and over-exploitation.
However, simply knowing how many plants there are and how
many are under threat is not enough – what is also needed
is an understanding of why some plants are more vulnerable
than others. This year, therefore, we have also examined
the emerging evidence for the characteristics of plants that
appear to make some types less/more resilient to current
and future threats.
It is not all doom and gloom, however. In this year’s
State of the World’s Plants, we also highlight the rapidly
accumulating discoveries and knowledge that provide
important sign-posts to the next food crops, medicines,
timbers etc. Information is now also emerging on the
effectiveness of conservation actions and policies in
protecting some of the most important plant species and
communities across the globe. While there is still much
more to do, these positive outcomes demonstrate that with
scientific knowledge and evidence-based global actions,
it is possible to conserve the extraordinary diversity of
plants on Earth and to build on the unique combination of
beauty and science which can together provide some of the
solutions for the global challenges facing humanity today.
