Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK

The world is facing a biodiversity crisis of unprecedented magnitude. Unless there are radical changes in human behaviour, we can expect significant and alarming species loss in the near future. DNA and tissue banks have great potential as tools for biodiversity conservation, yet few have been established.

This report has been produced by ZSL in collaboration with WWF, IUCN and SSC. It considers for the first time the current status and trends of global vertebrates in the context of human pressures, with a particular focus on threatened, novel and evolutionary distinct species.

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.

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,.

This checklist gives information on a number of species of Cactaceae included in Appendices I and II of CITES regarding their identification, nomenclature and distribution. It is a first step towards a better implementation of CITES for this group of plants.