Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 10:15:29 -0400
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: M-I: 1 in 8 plant species threatened with extinction


April 9, 1998

Plant Survey Reveals Many Species Threatened With Extinction

By WILLIAM K. STEVENS

At least one of every eight plant species in the world -- and nearly one of
three in the United States -- is under threat of extinction, according to
the first comprehensive worldwide assessment of plant endangerment. 

The assessment, which required more than 20 years of work by botanists and
conservationists around the globe, added nearly 34,000 plant species to the
World Conservation Union's growing Red List of imperiled organisms. The
survey was made public Wednesday in Washington. 

Among the plants most at risk, the survey found, are 14 percent of rose
species, 32 percent of lilies, 32 percent of irises, 14 percent of cherry
species and 29 percent of palms. Coniferous trees as a group, and many
species found in island nations, were also judged especially vulnerable. 

While endangered mammals and birds have commanded more public attention, it
is plants, scientists say, that are more fundamental to nature's
functioning. They undergird most of the rest of life, including human life,
by converting sunlight into food. They provide the raw material for many
medicines and the genetic stock from which agricultural strains of plants
are developed. And they constitute the very warp and woof of the natural
landscape, the framework within which everything else happens. 

The census of imperiled plants should be taken not as an exact measure of
the situation, leaders of the survey said, but rather as a first, rough
approximation. 

And some acknowledged that the majority of species were "secure and
widespread," in the words of Dr. Bruce Stein, a botanist who is a senior
scientist with the Nature Conservancy, one of nine scientific and
conservation organizations that participated in drawing up the list.
Furthermore, Stein said, some plants were placed on the list simply because
they are rare, not because their numbers are declining or their habitat is
threatened. 

Nevertheless, of the world's 270,000 known species of plants, the 12.5
percent found to be at risk is a huge proportion, said David Brackett of
Ottawa, chairman of the World Conservation Union's Species Survival
Commission. Moreover, he said, the figure is probably an underestimate,
since data from most places in the world -- including some species-rich
tropical nations where the countryside is being rapidly cleared -- are
fragmentary. 

The list of imperiled plants fills more than 750 pages of a large red-bound
book. Nine of every ten plants on the list are found in only one country,
making them especially vulnerable to national or local economic and social
conditions. Many species are found only on a few islands, and countries
like Mauritius, the Seychelles and Jamaica consequently have
disproportionately high numbers of threatened plants. 

Scientists generally cite two main reasons why plants become endangered:
destruction of large swatches of wild countryside by agriculture, logging
or development, and invasions of plants from one part of the world that run
riot and crowd out native species in another part. 

The new listing of endangered plants is one more piece of evidence that "a
whole chunk of creation is at risk," said Dr. Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at
the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in producing Wednesday's
report. While 1 plant in 8 might not seem like much, he said, "that's
what's threatened now, as a consequence of what we've done so far; but all
the evidence is that the destruction is continuing at an accelerating pace." 

The United States' situation looks comparatively grim, said Stein, because
plants are probably better surveyed here than elsewhere. With 4,669 species
judged to be threatened to one degree or another, the United States ranked
first, by far, among the nations of the world in total number of plants at
risk. That is 29 percent of the country's 16,108 plant species. 

"I don't believe the U.S. is worse off than other countries," said Stein.
"If anything, I think the U.S. has taken a more active interest in plant
conservation." 

Stein's group, the Nature Conservancy, maintains what is widely regarded as
one of North America's most comprehensive databases on endangered plants.
Other major American participants in drawing up the Red List were the New
York Botanical Garden and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of
Natural History. 

The conservation union, also called the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, is based in Gland, Switzerland. Many
governments and scientific organizations are among its members. Since 1960,
it has been maintaining and adding to its Red List of threatened species.
The list has no official effect but is widely regarded as an influential
guide for conservation policy makers. 

Two years ago, the union placed nearly a quarter of all known mammal
species and 11 percent of birds on the list. It also added a number of
marine species for the first time. 

The Red List establishes five categories of organisms: species not seen in
the wild in 50 years and presumed extinct; species suspected of having
recently become extinct; endangered species, those likely to become extinct
if the causes of endangerment continue; vulnerable species, those likely to
become endangered if the causes continue; and rare species, those with
small worldwide populations not yet endangered or vulnerable. Of the total
number of plants on the Red List, 43 percent are classified as rare, 24
percent as vulnerable and 20 percent as endangered. 

These categories are different from those established under the United
States' Endangered Species Act, and cannot be compared with them. The
American categories, in descending order of seriousness, are called
endangered and threatened. 

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company  




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