Plants Are Threatened

Cylindrophyllum hallii, a highly threatened species from the Northern Cape, RSA.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reports that human actions are fundamentally, and to a significant extent irreversibly, changing the diversity of life on earth. Most of these changes represent a loss of biodiversity. Over the past few hundred years humans have increased the species extinction rate by 3 orders of magnitude (1000x). It is predicted that these rates will continue or accelerate in the future.

Most important direct threats to biodiversity are: climate change, habitat loss, invasive alien species, and over-exploitation. Plants are affected by a combination of these at any one place.

Loss of plants leads to worsening health, food insecurity, increasing vulnerability, lower material wealth, worsening social relations and less freedom of choice and actions.