The term 'endangered' doesn't apply to animals alone - one-third of the world's plant species are in trouble, writes Claire O'Connell
What image springs to mind when you hear the term "endangered species"? A lonely panda, perhaps? or tigers and rhino struggling to survive in the shadow of poachers? Despite the high profile of such examples, it's not just animals that are under threat. An estimated one-third of the world's known plant species are now endangered, and without action the future could be even bleaker, according to Dr Peter Wyse Jackson, director of the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin.
"If things continue the way they are, we could be faced at the end of this century with two-thirds of the world's plants in danger of extinction in the wild," he says.
Wyse Jackson is chairman of the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation, an international lobby group that drew up a global strategy for plant conservation in 2000. The strategy grew into a list of 16 targets, to be achieved by 2010, that cover documenting the world's plant diversity, protecting habitats and conserving 60 per cent of threatened species, both in botanic collections and in the wild.
"They were the first real international targets for biodiversity conservation that had ever been developed," explains Wyse Jackson. "Most governments aren't that keen to have a target - as we have seen from climate change in Kyoto - so this was a little bit controversial." But in 2002, 188 countries adopted the targets through the UN convention on biological diversity. Many individual countries also set out national targets, including Ireland, which has around 120 threatened species. The Glasnevin gardens provide a focal point for Ireland's plant protection strategy, which is co- ordinated by Dr Matthew Jebb.
"Strategies are only bits of paper and the proof of the pudding is then implementing them, and I've always felt that botanic gardens have a really central role in achieving this," says Wyse Jackson, who became director of the national gardens in March 2005. "In Glasnevin we have committed that no critically endangered [ Irish] species will not be in cultivation by 2010."
IN MANY CASES the botanic gardens here act as an "intensive care unit" for plants on the verge of extinction. One patient who made a full recovery was the yellow, daisy-like Irish fleabane (Inula salicina). It grew plentifully around the shores of Lough Derg at the start of the 20th century, but 100 years later just one population remained there, the last of the wild species in Britain and Ireland.
"Why it has become so endangered nobody knows, but it has probably to do with the fact that the level of Lough Derg has fluctuated because of the Shannon hydroelectric scheme," says Wyse Jackson.
Luckily a local person had grown some Irish fleabane themselves, and donated material to the Glasnevin gardens, where it was bulked up. Last June, 16 of the conserved plants were introduced back into the wild around Lough Derg, where scientists and locals alike are keeping a watchful eye on the rare flowers as they re-establish themselves.
"This is the sort of project we think we can play a role in - rescuing critically endangered plants, learning about how to grow them and propagate them and working with others to put them back if appropriate," says Wyse Jackson. "The last thing you want to do is keep the poor patient in the intensive care unit for too long, so you have to try and get them back into the wild and rehabilitate them."
An endangered species that has yet to reclaim its place in the outside world is Carex buxbaumii, which once flourished on the shores of Lough Neagh but became extinct in the wild by 1890. Harboured in private collections for a century, the plant is now being protected in Glasnevin.
"We have been maintaining it in the garden, and ensuring that it is safe in cultivation, but also with the possibility of working with the Northern Ireland authorities to put it back into the wild," says Wyse Jackson.
But reintroduction is not a quick fix and must be done with care, he says. "Any reintroduction has to be thought of as an experiment, and if you don't remove the original cause of the extinction then you are simply propping up a failing system."
PLANTS FACE MANY threats, including over-picking, loss of habitat and being overtaken by aggressive invasive species. And another danger looms large: "We're just realising that whatever the threats to biodiversity from development, urbanisation and invasives, the threat from climate change is going to be huge," says Wyse Jackson. "I think if Ireland warms up we will lose a lot of our rare alpines, because the plants on the lower slopes will be able to move upwards and will colonise where the alpines have survived since the ice age."
From October 23rd until the 25th the Glasnevin gardens will host an international panel of experts for a mid-term review of the global strategy for plant conservation. So are they on track for 2010? "I think it's a bit like the reports that most of us got in school: some progress, but could do better," says Wyse Jackson.
In the meantime the most important thing we can do as individuals is to be aware, he says. "Plant conservation has almost been a poor relation, but it is hugely important to be aware how important plants are," he says, recalling an instance when he approached an antiques dealer to ask for a discount on items for a charity auction. When the dealer heard the cause was plant conservation, he muttered that it was a bit self-indulgent.
"I pointed out to him, with steam coming out of my ears, that without plants there would be no life on earth," smiles Wyse Jackson. "He gave me a good discount."