News published: 16 April 2024

BGCI and our Global Tree Assessment (GTA) partners passed a significant milestone recently, with over 80% of the world’s described tree species now assessed (although not all yet published) on the IUCN Red List. As of the last update, there were 41,444 tree species assessed and on the Red List, and another 7,349 submitted making 84% of all tree species in total. This is significant because (a) this is the largest red list assessment ever undertaken and (b) IUCN regards a group as being comprehensively assessed if 80% are completed. Of course, we will finish the job and make sure that all tree species are assessed but the real significance of this achievement is that we now have the information we need to prioritise which tree species most need recovery action. The figures are daunting: ca. 18,000 tree species threatened; around 3000 species Critically Endangered, and; ca. 600 species with fewer than 50 individuals remaining.

Despite the urgency of the situation, the fact that we know how to recover threatened tree species and have institutions and individuals poised and ready to do the recovery work, we continue to struggle to secure funding for this urgent task. Notwithstanding their responsibilities under the Convention on Biological Diversity, governments continue to encourage and support the planting of large scale exotic monocultures for carbon and livelihoods, and largely ignore the species that they have national sovereignty over and are solely responsible for (58% of tree species are single country endemics). In fact, the first draft of the Global Biodiversity Framework had no individual species recovery target in it at all – the assumption being that habitat and protected area-focused targets would cover individual species. This is clearly not the case for plants even if we do succeed in effectively protecting 30% of terrestrial ecosystems.

BGCI and partners have been exploring alternative funding options over the past couple of years, including packaging up tree species recovery into ‘biodiversity impact credits’, which we hope will appeal to companies and civil society as a way in which they can compensate for the damage they have done to biodiversity. Here again, despite the work being carried out by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), the uncertainties around calculating biodiversity footprint and the lack of government regulation makes it very hard to persuade companies that they should be funding species recovery out of the goodness of their hearts.

Meanwhile species are falling between the cracks.

Our policy at BGCI is that we never give up on the possibility of recovering a plant species. Forget triage or the idea that species occurring in human-transformed landscapes are a lost cause. At the very least we should be banking the seeds of threatened plant species or maintaining them in the living collections of botanic gardens and arboreta. For trees, at least, we have a long way to go – only 25% of threatened tree species are held in ex situ collections currently.

Given all of the above, I am delighted to draw your attention to two recent initiatives that BGCI is part of with IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC). One is the Extinct in the Wild Alliance, through which we will work with IUCN SSC, Re:Wild and the Zoological Society of London to raise awareness of, and fund the recovery of, Extinct in the Wild species (website and introductory video on the way). The second is the ‘Reverse the Red World Species Congress’, a 24 hour round the world virtual event showcasing and celebrating species recovery work. The date is May 15th, and amongst the furry creatures, feathered friends and scaly reptiles there will be many plants featured amongst the stories of recovery and resurrection.

Our aim is to show that plant species recovery is not only possible, it is common practice and has a high chance of success. Please do join in if you have stories to share.