Statement on the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation

Released on Friday 13th February 2004, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A Global Partnership for Plant Conservation is being established to support the world-wide implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2002.

The Partnership is an initiative supported by a wide range of international and national agencies and organisations active in plant conservation.

The Partnership is being established to build on the work begun by the “Gran Canaria group”, an informal consortium of international and national organisations that came together in 2000 to support the development of a global strategy for plant conservation.

The Global Partnership for Plant Conservation was launched at an event held on Friday 13th February 2004 during the 7th Meeting of the Conferences of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Conference of the Parties adopted at its sixth meeting the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, including 16 outcome-oriented global targets for 2010.

The ultimate and long-term objective of the Strategy is to halt the current and continuing loss of plant diversity.

The Strategy provides a framework to facilitate harmony between existing initiatives aimed at plant conservation, to identify gaps where new initiatives are required, and to promote mobilization of the necessary resources. While the entry point for the Strategy is plant conservation, aspects of sustainable use, capacity building and benefit-sharing are also included.