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Red Listing for Trees
| Date: |
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23/05/2004 |
RED LISTING FOR TREES
FFI is coordinating a major new initiative to evaluate the conservation status of and threats to rare and threatened tree species. This effort is important to ensure that international, national and local agencies have up-to-date information on which to base conservation and sustainable use planning and action.
The global survey of the conservation status of trees is being undertaken by a network of botanists and forest experts who form the IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group.Working out of FFI’s Cambridge office, this group will both be responsible for the promotion and implementation of tree Red Listing and act as an advisory group for the rapidly expanding Global Trees Campaign. Information from the field projects of the Campaign will feed back into the Red Listing process.
FFI has secured a generous grant to enable the global tree conservation survey to take place. In the first year it will concentrate on selected regions and plant families. Working with Fairchild Tropical Garden, Miami, UNDP and local partners it will, for example, focus on the trees of the Caribbean region.Workshops are planned for Cuba and Jamaica this year.
The preparation of ‘a preliminary assessment of the conservation status of all known plant species, at national, regional and international levels’ is an internationally agreed target of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation ratified by all Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Through its support for tree Red Listing, FFI is making a major contribution to implementation of this target. It is also actively supporting the implementation of another target of the Strategy: ‘No species of wild flora endangered by international trade’.
The CITES Plants Committee is the lead agency for coordinating the necessary action to reach this target. FFI is supporting the Plants Committee by undertaking an international stakeholder consultation as part of the planning process. The work on tree Red Listing is also directly linked to this target, as it will help to identify those species in need of improved management, and in some cases regulation, to prevent unsustainable exploitation for international trade.
For further information on Red Listing for trees please visit www.globaltrees.org
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