The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) is now entering a new, third phase and has been updated to align with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). This new phase will be implemented from 2020-2030 and follows the success of phase II, which  operated between 2010 and 2020.

The GSPC continues to highlight the importance of plants and the ecosystem services they provide for all life on earth, and aims to ensure their conservation. It ensures that plants get the conservation action they need and deserve as part of the broader Convention on Biological Diveristy (CBD) and KMGBF.

The original Global Strategy for Plant Conservation was developed in the early 2000’s and over the past 20 years has seen incredible success in providing a programmatic focus for the world’s plant conservation activities.  This original strategy grew out of the CBD and has been fed into government policy around the world. For more information on GSPC activities from the beginning, follow this link.

In 2010, as part of the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD, an updated GSPC, for the period 2010-2020 was adopted. This updated GSPC included 16 targets for plant conservation to be achieved by 2020. A review of progress in the implementation of this phase of the GSPC was carried out in 2020 and published by the CBD Secretariat in the Plant Conservation Report 2020.

A post-2020 GSPC

In line with the development of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and through broad international stakeholder consultations, a new set of plant conservation targets are now proposed. Completely aligned with the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, they aim to be clearly identifiable as components, sub-targets or milestones towards the biodiversity targets. More information on the process of preparing this is available in BG Journal Vol 21 (1).

With this in mind, the GSPC now takes the form of Voluntary Complimentary Actions (VCA) for both government and non-government parties to implement and report towards. The proposed actions are available in an information document (SBSTTA 25-inf-4)  presented at SBSTTA 25, in Kenya 2023.  These actions have been recommended by SBSTTA for adoption at the next Conference of the Parties (COP16).  BGCI is working towards the finalisation of the GSPC VCA’s at COP16 (October 2024) with support from the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation. Alongside documentation on the complimentary actions, advice on indicators, monitoring and reporting will be provided in 2025.

Learn more about the GSPC from our Moodle module: Introduction to International Environmental Policies

Further details about the 2010-2020 GSPC are available on the GSPC toolkit.

The Global Partnership for Plant Conservation

BGCI hosts the secretariat for The Global partnership for Plant Conservation. The GPPC is made up of botanic and University gardens, arboreta, plant conservation NGO’s (such as Plantlife) and other plant conservation stakeholders. The GPPC are pivotal in the development, implementation and reporting of the GSPC and the new complimentary actions. The partnership supports capacity building, finding innovative ways to implement the targets and mobilises actions at different levels to achieve the GSPC.

The Global partnership for Plant Conservation was launched in 2004 to support the activities of the GSPC. It now includes 70 members, including 21 international organisation and 47 national organisations representing 21 countries.

With the renewal of the GSPC and the complimentary actions, the GPPC is seeking new members. If your organisation would like to get involved please email policy@bgci.org.