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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Plant Losses Threaten World's Food Supplies

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Forest Networking a Project of forests.org

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9/26/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY

A new Worldwatch Institute report details the extent to which the

World is losing plant species, including the genetic diversity of

food crops. Essentially all life on the Planet is dependent upon

plants and their ability to photosynthesize. In our air-conditioned

domiciles, eating processed foods from the microwave, we have lost

touch of our utter dependence upon plants and the habitats they

occupy. We need plants, in all their diversity, in order to continue

to meet basic human needs.

g.b.

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Title: Plant losses threaten world's food supplies

Source: BBC News

Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint

Date: September 19, 1999

Byline: Environment Correspondent Alex Kirby

Conservationists in the US say the world is losing plant species at a

rate which threatens its ability to grow enough food, and to exploit

other plant-based products on which hundreds of millions of people

depend.

A report by the Worldwatch Institute, based in Washington DC, says

the genetic diversity of the plants humanity relies on is being

eroded at a dangerous rate.

The report, "Nature's Cornucopia: Our Stake in Plant Diversity", says

widespread loss of species and varieties is attacking the foundations

of agricultural productivity.

The report's author, Dr John Tuxill, said: "The genetic diversity of

cultivated plants is essential to breeding more productive and

disease-resistant crop varieties".

No help from genetic manipulation

"But with changes in agriculture, that diversity is slipping away.

"Biotechnology is no solution. We are increasingly skilful at moving

genes around, but only nature can create them.

"If a plant bearing a unique genetic trait disappears, there is no

way to get it back."

Yet plant breeders often turn to wild relatives of domestic crops in

search of desirable traits like disease resistance.

Fifty years ago Chinese farmers were estimated to have been growing

10,000 varieties of wheat. By the 1970s, that figure had fallen to

about 1,000.

The range of corn varieties grown by farmers in Mexico today is 20%

of what they were raising in the 1930s.

Apart from food, there are other serious implications. The report

says a quarter of all medicines prescribed in the USA are based on

chemical compounds originally found in plants.

Globally, about 3.5 billion people rely on plant-based medicine for

primary health care, and in one form or another plants supply most of

their material needs.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature,

one plant species in eight is now at risk of extinction.

The main threats they face are habitat loss, pressure from competing

non-native species, and over-harvesting.

Vanishing knowledge

The African cherry tree, for example, is in great demand, because its

bark is widely used in developed countries for treating prostate

disorders.

So the number of cherries in the highlands of Cameroon and other

African countries is now severely depleted.

The report says that fewer than 1% of all plant species have been

screened for bio-active compounds, and traditional knowledge of

medicinal plants is declining even faster than the plants themselves.

Dr Tuxill says the world needs to do more to safeguard plant and seed

diversity, and sometimes this will mean policy changes.

Organisations like the Convention on Biological Diversity require

governments to develop policies for managing plant resources wisely.

But the report singles out the World Trade Organisation as an example

of the sort of body that demands the dismantling of protective

measures in the name of liberating trade.

Dr Tuxill says: "The bottom line is that we have to share both the

economic benefits of plant diversity and the obligation for

protecting it".

"Those who garner the benefits of plant diversity, such as

agribusinesses and pharmaceutical consumers, should acknowledge and

support those who maintain it, like indigenous cultures and national

seed banks."

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