New tools offer hope in the fight against plant extinction

At a UN biodiversity conference in Montreal, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that "we are waging a war against nature" and called for a "peace agreement with nature"
.

The new study provides key insights
into which pressures and where cause what damage.

According to a paper published in Conservation Biology, the transformation of crop, livestock and timber production for sustainable development will mitigate the biggest drivers of
extinction risk of terrestrial plant species in different ecosystems.
Knowing this, we can begin to develop a "peace agreement with nature"
.

The study used data from Brazil, South Africa and Norway to identify opportunities
to reduce the risk of plant species extinction with a new measure.
The work was done in collaboration with international scientists and environmentalists led by Newcastle University
.

The authors applied the new STAR (Species Threat Reduction and Recovery) indicator to vascular plant species
that are already on the national red list.
What these three countries have in common is that agricultural activities pose a considerable threat
to plant species.
In Brazil, the risk of extinction of the 2,791 endemic plants included in the study could be reduced by 29%
by addressing threats from agricultural activities.
The risk of extinction was also reduced by 36% for the 1,894 endemic plant species studied in South Africa, and by 54% for the 301 terrestrial plant species studied in Norway
.

The unique situation
of each country is revealed by identifying further opportunities to reduce the risk of species extinction.
In Brazil, mitigating the threat of urban sprawl can reduce the risk of extinction by 21%, while mitigating the threat of fire caused by climate change and deforestation can further reduce the risk of extinction by 10%.

In South Africa, invasive species pose a significant threat to native plants, and addressing this threat could reduce the risk of plant extinction by 21%.

In the high-latitude country of Norway, the risk of extinction can be reduced by 39% by addressing the threat of climate change, which is a particularly difficult conservation challenge
considering that climate change is not necessarily solved locally.

Dr Louis Mayer, from Newcastle University's School of Natural and Environmental Sciences and lead author of the study, said: "This study demonstrates the importance of
considering the conservation needs of as diverse species as possible.
" While the greatest opportunity to reduce the risk of extinction of terrestrial plants and terrestrial vertebrates such as amphibians, birds, and mammals comes from mitigating agricultural threats, the relative importance of addressing other threats to plants differs compared
to previous studies of terrestrial vertebrates.
”

Dr Magni Olsen Kyrkjeeide, from the Norwegian Nature Research Institute, said: "Although there are few endemic species in Norway, this study shows that Norway can indeed reduce the risk
of global extinction by maintaining populations of Arctic-alpine vascular plants.
"

"In addition to demonstrating the importance of addressing the different threats affecting the persistence of the Brazilian flora, this study highlights the considerable research work done so far in Brazil and the importance of
investing in expanding national Red List assessments to identify threatened and near-threatened species.
"

"Conducting research on more effective actions to address and mitigate species loss under climate change scenarios, such as forest landscape restoration, can help us meet national targets
by saving us from the brink of thousands of species currently facing extinction.
"

National Red Lists provide an important resource that enables this analysis to capture greater species diversity; Only 13% of plant species have undergone global extinction risk assessments, but South Africa has national assessments of all 20,401 plant species within its territory, while Brazil has assessed nearly 22% (7,830 out of 35,683) of its highly diverse flora
.
Analysis using national Red List data, as described in this study, not only helps to include more species diversity, but also provides insight
into each country's unique conservation context.

The STAR indicators applied in this study provide a tool to enable local and national decision-makers to assess their potential contribution to reducing the risk of species extinction globally, enabling them to participate in international conservation policy processes
through their national contexts.
Such analysis is essential to support species conservation in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, which is currently being adopted at
the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal.