Rescue Plans for New Zealand's Plant Life

Forest and Bird, Issue 314, 1 November 2004, Page 10

Rescue Plans for New Zealand's Plant Life

— Source

secretary,

New Zealand Plant Conservation Network.

JOHN SAWYER,

he New Zealand Plant Conservation Network is a major new initiative to halt the continuing decline in indigenous plant life in New Zealand. It is also an attempt to raise awareness of the importance of New Zealand as a global centre of plant diversity. New Zealand is a botanist’s paradise, internationally renowned as a ‘biodiversity hotspot’ — 80 percent of New Zealand’s vascular plant species are found nowhere else in the world. Less well-known is the extent to which New Zealand’s plantlife is in decline, a trend that has continued, even since the Convention on Biological Diversity was ratified in 1992. In a recent conservation assessment, four of New Zealand’s vascular plant taxa were listed as globally extinct

while 119 indigenous vascular plants were classified as ‘acutely threatened’ A further 102 are in serious or gradual decline and 502 taxa (21 percent) are ‘at risk’ meaning they have a restricted range or are sparse. In addition, 89 bryophyte and 50 fungi taxa are also acutely threatened. Causes of that decline are not unique to New Zealand. Principal agents include the spread of exotic weeds (there are now more naturalised exotic vascular plants than native), habitat modification, stock and animal pests (not just damage from herbivores such as the introduced possum but also via predators such as stoats that kill pollinators and seed dispersers), plant collection (there is no legal protection for native plants in New Zealand except when they occur in protected

areas), and vegetation succession. Efforts to halt the decline of New Zealand’s plantlife have been varied and are driven, to a large extent, by the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy (adopted in 2000). More recently the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (ratified in 2002) has also provided a valuable framework upon which to hang plant conservation initiatives. The need to work towards national implementation of these strategies has led to a variety of responses from government, conservation organisations, communities and individuals alike. The establishment of a New Zealand Plant Conservation Network has brought together botanists, horticulturalists and representatives of restoration groups, botanic gardens, zoos, local councils, universities and the Department of Conservation. The vision of the Network is that ‘no indigenous plant species or community will become extinct nor be placed at risk as a result of human action or indifference’. The work of the Network has been structured around the 16 targets of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. The key areas of work are: plant education, developing an ‘Important Plant Area Programme’ for New Zealand, plant conservation training and achieving legal protection for native plants. Copies of the report are available from the Network (info@nzpcn.org.nz). The Network has also begun disseminating information about the threatened flora of New Zealand and plant conservation literature through its website (www.nzpcn.org.nz). The Department of Conservation is also a major player in plant conservation and conducts 17 species recovery

programmes to protect 50 indigenous plant taxa. DoC has also developed a national plant database onto which all records of native plant occurrences (especially threatened plants) are stored. More than 350 threatened-plant monitoring programmes are now underway in New Zealand to detect change in population conditions over time. Much of the plant protection work is undertaken in conjunction with private landowners, community restoration groups, and with commercial plant nurseries and botanic gardens, all key allies. Another part of the programme is the translocation of species to establish new selfsustaining wild populations. Many of these translocations have been to offshore islands that are free of animal pests and have lesser problems with exotic plants. Information about plant recovery plans, monitoring and other initiatives can be found on the Department of Conservation’s website (www.doc.govt.nz). There have already been some notable successes in the protection of threatened plants in New Zealand. For example, Dactylanthus taylori was listed as ‘critical’ 10 years ago but has now dropped out of the ‘acutely threatened’ category due to a range of DoC programmes. In the future, collaboration between the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, the Department of Conservation, Plantlife International, the Australian Network for Plant Conservation and other conservation organisations in Oceania will be vital for increasing awareness of plant conservation issues and improving conservation actions.