In 2006 the RHS and the NCCPG (Plant Heritage) held a conference to build on the developments in cultivated plant conservation, and to agree the priorities for cultivated plant conservation going forward. The conference was attended by representatives of many organisations with an interest in plant conservation and it led to the Growing Heritage Action Plan, which was published in 2007.
The Action Plan highlights a series of key actions under each of the five main objectives of the plan.
The key actions identified in the Action Plan have informed the development of plans and policy for cultivated plant conservation both in the RHS and the Plant Heritage as well as other bodies that have collections of cultivated plants. Major projects now underway include:
- Threatened Plants Project: establishing the protocols for determining the priorities for conservation of cultivated plants and evaluating those priorities for groups of plants.
- Improving the profile of cultivated plant conservation: the Action Plan identified that there needs to be greater influence on national and inter-governmental organisations on issues of cultivated plant conservation; a forum for this has brought together major stakeholders to co-ordinate activity and pool resources.
- An inventory of nursery catalogues: critical information about the cultivars introduced into cultivation since the eighteenth century is held in the catalogues of plants for sale produced by nurseries. As there is no central repository for these, work has started to find out where these are held and to provide this information on the internet.