Conservation Strategies for Plant Diversity

Abstract

Plant diversity encompasses a wide range of plant species, from genes to ecosystems, and is primarily found in hotspots and crop diversity centres. However, different anthropogenic activities severely threatened the plant biodiversity and have a negative impact on human life as it depends on the plants up to a varying extent. The loss of biodiversity on a global, national, and regional scale is a complex problem that impacts social, economic, organizational, political, scientific, and communicational communities. Hence, there is an urgent need to preserve the plant biodiversity from extinction, thereby ensuring that the present and future generations to use plant material sustainably. The growing extinction and vulnerability of various plant species in the twenty-first century have made conservation areas such as sanctuary, parks, etc., as an essential part of the global biodiversity protection plan. To guarantee comprehensive worldwide biodiversity conservation strategies, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) emphasizes the necessity of utilizing all available resources and methods, including collaborative and indigenous forest conservation techniques. To effectively focus on both in situ and ex situ conservation, the completion of a global botanical inventory and an evaluation of the conservation status of 94% of plant species that have not yet been assessed are the most urgent demands. This chapter includes several in situ and ex situ strategies, as well as the growing trend of integrated conservation (which connects in situ and ex situ) activities, in an attempt to prevent the ongoing loss of plant diversity worldwide.