Plants

This report describes a rapid assessment of Important Plant Areas in the south and east Mediterranean; a project designed to provide the ‘wild plant perspective’ for the regional investment strategy of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. The project partnership of IUCN, Plantlife International and WWF with botanical teams from Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Syria and Albania, was supported by the French Development Agency.

One of the main reasons cited for inadequate representation of biodiversity in the development processes is a lack of readily available information on inland water taxa. In response to this need for basic for information on species, the IUCN Species Programme conducted a regional assessment of the status and distribution of 2,261 taxa of freshwater fishes, molluscs, odonates, crabs and selected families of aquatic plants from throughout central Africa.

South-east Asia is both a centre for the consumption of wildlife products, and also a key supplier of wildlife products to the world. Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR and Vietnam are among the south-east Asian countries that act as major sources of wildlife in trade, the trade involving a wide variety of native species, which, in many cases, are declining as a result of unsustainable, and often illegal, harvest.

This volume gives the most up-to-date information on the distributions and conservation status of species in all inland water ecosystems across mainland continental Africa and the reasons behind their declining status. This represents the most comprehensive assessment yet of freshwater biodiversity at the species level for an entire continent. For managers, this information will assist in designing and delivering targeted action to mitigate and minimise these threats.

La entrada en vigor del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Agricultura y la Alimentación marca el compromiso de la comunidad internacional con un acuerdo independiente dirigido a abordar tanto las necesidades mundiales de seguridad alimentaria como los objetivos acordados a nivel internacional en relación con los conceptos de "acceso y participación en los beneficios" plasmados en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.

L'entrée en vigueur du Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture signale l'engagement de la communauté mondiale à l'égard d'un accord autonome qui a pour but d'aborder à la fois la nécessité d'assurer la sécurité alimentaire au niveau mondial et les objectifs ayant fait l'objet d'un consensus international relatifs aux concepts « d'accès et de partage des avantages » figurant dans la Convention sur la diversité biologique.

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.