Wild conifers under threat
1 December 2011
The latest updating of a list of the world's most threatened species has revealed a gloomy picture for conifers in the wild, with some species slipping towards extinction.
A review of the Red List, a record of the conservation status of over 60,000 species around the world, also found the risk to tropical plant species is increasing as habitats disappear to development and agriculture. In Europe, too, over a quarter of vascular plants are now classified as 'threatened'. They include several wild relatives of crop plants such as sugar beet and wheat, crucial for breeding new strains with genetic resistance to pests and diseases.
The list is drawn up by a partnership led by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which said plants are still under-represented in comparison to animals, accounting for just under a quarter of species assessed.
A review of all records for conifers in an attempt to expand information on plants discovered the situation worsening for several species. Taxus contorta (West Himalayan yew), the main source of the chemotherapy drug Taxol, is now endangered due to over-exploitation; and Glyptostrobus pensilis (Chinese water fir), once widespread in its native China and Vietnam, is rapidly becoming extinct.
A similar analysis of plants in the Seychelle and Maldive Islands found Lodoicea maldivica (Coco de mer), which famously has the largest seeds in the world, is being put at risk by the black market trade in its huge kernels, and over three-quarters of the 79 endemic flowering plants in the Seychelles are at risk of extinction.
'The Red Listing process highlights the state of knowledge for some of the critical groups, like conifers, and is the first step towards understanding and dealing with one of the biggest problems we have to face in the 21st century – species extinction,' said Tim Entwisle, director of conservation at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.