Global Strategy for Plant Conservation

Click on picture to download the GSPC in English, French, Sanish, Russian, Chinese. German available upon request at the Planta Europa Secreteriat

In April 2002, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC).

The GSPC aims to halt the current and continuing decline of world plant diversity by implementing 16 clear, realistic and measurable targets by 2010.

The Global Strategy has been developed to provide a framework for action at the regional, national and global level. It was groundbreaking in that it was the first time that the CBD set quantitative conservation targets and a clear deadline for their inplementation (2010).

The GSPC is therefore one of the outstanding achievements of the worldwide conservation movement.

The targets of the GSPC address five major objectives:

1. Understanding and documenting plant diversity
   
2. Conserving plant diversity
   
3. Using plant diversity sustainably
   
4. Promoting education and awareness about plant diversity
   
5. Building capacity for the conservation of plant diversity

These objectives are mirrored in the European Plant Conservation Strategy (EPCS), which was developed by Planta Europa and the Council of Europe in response to the development of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.

The European Strategy translates the wider global targets into the regional political and cultural framework and sets more concrete target to be achieved by 2007.