Conserving plants within and beyond protected areas - still problematic and future uncertain Article Published Version Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 Open access Heywood, V. H. (2019) Conserving plants within and beyond protected areas - still problematic and future uncertain. Plant Diversity, 41 (2). pp. 36-49. ISSN 2468-2659 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2018.10.001 Available at http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/84565/ It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work. See Guidance on citing . To link to this article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2018.10.001 Publisher: Elsevier All outputs in CentAUR are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, including copyright law. Copyright and IPR is retained by the creators or other copyright holders. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in the End User Agreement . www.reading.ac.uk/centaur CentAUR Central Archive at the University of Reading Reading’s research outputs online Plant Diversity 41 (2019) 36e49 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Plant Diversity journal homepage: http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/plant-diversity/ http://journal.kib.ac.cn Conserving plants within and beyond protected areas e still problematic and future uncertain Vernon H. Heywood School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AS, UK article info abstract Article history: Against a background of continuing loss of biodiversity, it is argued that for the successful conservation of Received 23 August 2018 threatened plant species we need to ensure the more effective integration of the various conservation Received in revised form actions employed, clarify the wording of the CBD targets and provide clearer operational guidance as to 15 October 2018 how they are to be implemented and their implementation monitored. The role and effectiveness of Accepted 17 October 2018 protected areas in conserving biodiversity and in particular plant species in situ are discussed as are Available online 23 October 2018 recent proposals for a massive increase of their extent. The need for much greater effort and investment (Editor: Sergei Volis) in the conservation or protection of threatened species outside protected areas where most plant di- versity occurs is highlighted. The difficulties involved in implementing effective in situ conservation of Keywords: plant diversity both at an area- and species/population-based level are discussed. The widespread Plant conservation neglect of species recovery for plants is noted and the desirability of making a clearer distinction be- CBD targets tween species recovery and reintroduction is emphasized. Key messages from a global overview of Protected areas species recovery are outlined and recommendations made, including the desirability of each country Species recovery preparing a national species recovery strategy. The projected impacts of global change on protected areas Conservation approaches and on species conservation and recovery, and ways of addressing them are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY- NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 1. Introduction ‘Although conservation efforts have produced some encour- aging results, these have done little more than forestall some ‘The history of conservation is a story of many victories in a losing losses by tackling symptoms of unsustainable use of environ- war’ E.O. Wilson (2018). ments. Our successes have been valuable in buying time that could allow recovery of species and ecosystems in the future and providing lessons on how conservation actions can be made The recent trajectory of biodiversity conservation has gone from effective. However, the problem of transforming the funda- a phase of expectation and optimism, after the coming into effect of mental drivers of unsustainable use of nature remains largely the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and periods of unaddressed’. intense conservation actions and even more outpouring of books and papers, reports, action plans, targets and strategies, to one of reluctant acceptance that none of this is sufficient. The loss of This perspective is confirmed by the first regional assessments biodiversity at all levels continues at an alarming rate, faster than it of biodiversity and ecosystem services (https://goo.gl/oJ4DRq is able to recover, and many of the CBD's Aichi Targets for biodi- March 2018) prepared by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy versity will not be met given current trends, as noted by the latest Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) which analysis of the progress towards the targets (CBD, 2016a,b). A re- indicate that biodiversity continues to decline in every region of the view of biodiversity losses and conservation responses in the world, significantly reducing nature's capacity for resilience and Anthropocene by Johnson et al. (2017) concludes that. adaptation to novel conditions, and its contribution to people's well-being. The CBD Executive Secretary comments ‘These assess- ments are sobering. … if the current trends on biodiversity loss and ecosystems destruction are not reversed, the prospects for life on E-mail address: [email protected]. our planet become quite grim. At the current rate of destruction not https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2018.10.001 2468-2659/Copyright © 2018 Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). V.H. Heywood / Plant Diversity 41 (2019) 36e49 37 only will it be difficult to safeguard life on Earth, but will jeopardize cross-sectoral, cross-departmental, and multi-stakeholder the prospects for human development and well-being’ (quoted in collaboration, including through partnerships. https://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2018/pr-2018-03-23-IPBES-en.pdf). The world and almost all regions are currently off course from We are facing such an alarming situation despite the agreement achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (TWI 2050 e by governments to implement the Global Strategy for Plant Conser- The World in 2050, 2018). The 2018 SDG Index and Dashboards vation 2010e2020 and the Aichi targets of the CBD's Strategic Plan report titled, ‘Global Responsibilities: Implementing the Goals,’ for Biodiversity 2011e2020. As Sharrock and Wyse Jackson (2017) which track country progress towards the SDGs find that no country comment, ‘there is a continued lack of mainstreaming plant con- is on track to achieve all of the SDGs, and progress is slowest on the servation at the national level and a lack of comprehensive infor- environment-focused goals, such as SDG 12 (responsible con- mation on which plants are threatened and where. With the GSPC sumption and production), SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 14 (life reaching the end of its second phase in 2020, it is important to below water) and SDG 15 (life on land) (Sachs et al., 2018). consider how plant conservation can enhance its visibility and generate support in the future’. Already, preparations are being made ‘While solutions to climate change remain elusive, at least the to develop a new strategy and targets for the period up to 2030. world's policymakers have demonstrated an understanding for The background to this situation is global change, including the risks posed by rising temperatures. Unfortunately, there is notably climate change, whose impacts are being increasingly noticed no similar awareness of the threat posed by biodiversity loss e a in virtually all aspects of conservation and sustainable development shortcoming that scientists are urgently seeking to rectify. Many and which is driving large-scale shifts in the distributions of species policymakers … have yet to recognize that biodiversity loss is and in the composition of biological communities (Monzon et al., just as serious a threat as rising sea levels and increasingly 2011; Heywood, 2012; Stein et al., 2013; Thomas and Gillingham, frequent extreme weather events.’ R.T. Watson (2017). 2015). The recently published paper by Steffen et al. (2018), ‘Trajec- tories in the Earth System in the Anthropocene’ which postulates that In a telling comment at the meeting of the CBD Subsidiary Body human-induced warming is rapidly approaching levels that may on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 22) in trigger positive climate feedbacks which could have devastating July 2018, the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) ‘called on consequences for all of us, should serve as a wakeup call to even the governments to stop the vicious cycle of setting targets but failing most disinterested political or business leaders. to meet them. They reminded delegates that in 2009 former CBD Current conservation strategies are still largely based on the Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf pledged that the mistake assumption that we live in a dynamic but slowly changing world. made in adopting the 2010 Biodiversity Target without identifying Such an assumption has to be revised in the light of the rapid rate of the means of implementation would not be repeated at COP 10 in climate change already being experienced and confidently pre- Nagoya, when the Aichi Targets