Plantlife
Harebells and Selfheal
Plantlife is a charity working to protect wildflowers and plants, fungi and lichens in the habitats in which they are found. Established in 1989, Plantlife is today the leading organisation working to protect wild plants and their habitats. HRH The Prince of Wales is our Patron and Adrian Darby OBE our President.
Our Purpose
To provide action and advocacy on wild plants and fungi of conservation concern by focussing on:
- those wild plant and fungus species and habitats that are under greatest threat,
- those issues which pose the greatest threat to wild plants and fungi to ensure maintenance and enhancement of native plant and fungal diversity in the wild.
In the UK
Poppies
The wild flowers and plants that give the UK its unique character are under tremendous pressure from intensive farming, habitat destruction, invasive plants over-grazing, climate change and pollution. A third of all plants worldwide are under threat and a report last year confirmed that a staggering one in five of Britain’s wild plants is threatened with extinction.
Whilst preserving wild plants in botanical gardens or in seed banks is an important last resort, it is no substitute for their wild and natural existence as an integral part of the countryside. Plantlife identifies and conserves sites of exceptional botanical importance, rescues wild plants on the brink of extinction and works to ensure that common plants don’t become rare in the wild. We are a Lead Partner in the Government’s Biodiversity Action Plan (which targets the UK’s Priority Species and Habitats for conservation action) and are responsible for conserving over 100 of the UK’s most threatened plants and fungi.
We do this by:
- Carrying out practical conservation work at hundreds of mostly unprotected sites across the UK through our Back from the Brink conservation programme
- Managing 4,500 acres of rare and important plant habitat as nature reserves
- Influencing key national policies and legislation relevant to plant conservation
- Involving both members and non-members in many aspects of our work, including survey and monitoring work.
- Commissioning key research and publishing reports
International
Juniperus communis
Plantlife also has a dynamic international team working to safeguard wild plants and their habitats. We are one of the key organisations that developed the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which was endorsed by governments across the world, including the British Government, at The Hague in 2002. The strategy underpins all our activities. We are Lead Partner of Target 5 and head the global effort to identify the world's most important sites for wild plants, and have an active ‘Important Plant Area’ Programme in both the UK and overseas.
Key Drivers
Plantlife has a number of key drivers that focus the organisations approach to conserving wild plants:
Climate Change, 2010 and Beyond, The Ecosystem Approach, Productive Landscapes, Current and Future Political Frameworks, Eutrophication.
Climate Change:
Climate change is a reality that is already affecting plant and fungi populations across the globe. Within Europe two key factors interact to threaten plant and fungus species with extinction – i) the rapidity of climate change producing an imminent large-scale shift in species distribution northwards, and ii) the rate of habitat loss. The combination of these two factors implies that the success of different species ability to disperse to more climatically suitable areas depends on the presence of sufficient contiguous habitat.
CPS Surveyors
Among other initiatives to identify the impacts of Climate Change on our native flora Plantlife have been carrying out an annual monitoring scheme called the Common Plant Survey (CPS). The Common Plants Survey is a long-term project monitoring changes to the wild flowers in our countryside. It is the only national annual survey of wild plants in the UK and has been running since 2001. Its success rests entirely on volunteers who are responsible for monitoring plots on a 1km sq near their home and identifying the presence (or absence) of 65 carefully chosen common plant species. These species are both easy to identify, and indicative of particular habitats and environmental conditions. By surveying these squares each year, across a large proportion of the UK, we hope to be able to build up a picture of the state of the British countryside, be able to report on assemblage changes and statistically monitor such changes. The CPS dataset will contribute to BICCO-Net project.
