Plant protection

Biodiversity is essential for sustainable development, and cultures from ancient times to the present day have exploited biodiversity. With the advent of scientific breeding, new plant varieties have been developed. Plant breeders are dependent upon the availability of a large pool of diverse genetic material represented by local races and wild relatives. Without the ability to draw from a diverse genetic reservoir, further improvement may not be possible.

This is the first systematic treatment of conservation principles and practices for rare, threatened, or disappearing plant species.

Covers the full spectrum of legal mechanisms available for conserving biodiversity. Part 1 discusses the scope of state powers to conserve wild species and habitats, legal mechanisms for controlling taking, procedures for listing species in need of conservation measures, mechanisms for controlling trade and the challenges of enforcement. Part 2 covers area-based conservation at local and national level, as well as in transfrontier protected areas and areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Eighty per cent of the world's population depends on traditional medicine for its primary health care needs, a system of medicine in which most of the drugs and cures used come from plants. Yet many of the plant involved are increasingly threatened. These Guidelines outline in clear steps the tasks that need to be done to conserve them. Of interest primarily to nature conservationists and health policy-makers, but also to ethnobiologists, ecologists, agronomists and pharmocologists.