Conserve Plants

Even though plants represent an essential part of our lives offering exploitational, supporting and cultural services, we know very little about the biology of the rarest and most threatened plant species, and even less about their conservation status. Rapid changes in the environment and climate, today more pronounced than ever, affect their fitness and distribution causing rapid species declines, sometimes even before they had been discovered.

Despite the high goals set by conservationists to protect native plants from further degradation and extinction, the initiatives for the conservation of threatened species in Europe are scattered and have not yielded the desired results.

The main aim of this Action is to improve plant conservation in Europe by establishing a network of scientists and other stakeholders dealing with different aspects of plant conservation. This may vary from plant taxonomy, ecology, conservation genetics and physiology, and reproductive biology, to protected area's managers. It is also important not to forget social scientists, who are crucial when dealing with the general public.