Over 40% of the primary forest in Lao PDR remains but this is under increasing pressure. Floristic diversity is poorly known and botanical work almost non-existent. This checklist is the outcome of a programme aimed at training some 30 Laotians participants in tropical taxonomy through field work and herbarium base work. One of the outputs of this project is this checklist which has more than 4800 species from 232 families.
Conifers are one of the world's most important resources of timber. If managed wisely and used sustainably, these resources will provide wood for a multitude of purposes, virtually indefinitely. Additional products include resins and their derivatives, and even medicinal extracts, for example taxol now used in the treatment of cancer. Conifers occur on all continents except Antarctica. Of the 630 species, 355 are listed as of conservation concern, with 200, or 25 of species, threatened with extinction.
This represents the most comprehensive compilation of data on threatened vascular plants ever published. It includes the names of some 33,000 plant species determined to be rare or threatened on a global scale. Conservation assessments were provided by the IUCN Species Survival Commission, the National Botanical Institute (South Africa), Environment Australia and CSIRO,. The Nature Conservancy, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew together with hundreds of botanic gardens and botanists throughout the world.
