Post by Melanie on Dec 19, 2006 1:06:06 GMT 1
Some people who are familiar with Peter's Extinction Forum may ask why I have founded this forum. Well, I think this subject is thrilling enough that it deserves its own forum. Here are some of the reasons. It is still unclear how many plants have vanished from our planet in the past 500 years. But, if you take the Brazilian rainforest or the rainforests of Indonesia for example there must be thousands of plants which we are not aware of but which are extinct today because their habitat is completely destroyed. But not only plants which became extinct during the Holocene should be the subject of this forum. Let's talk also about the prehistoric plants. The origin of the real plants is dated back about 600 Mio years ago and when you take a look of the plants which have occur during the different eras of our earth you will see that these plants were as fantastic as the animals which have occur during the same epoch. The main source of this forum is the IUCN redlist www.redlist.org. 125 plants are listed as extinct or extinct in the wild, 10275 species and subspecies of plants are currently listed as threatened, about 1000 are listed as Data Deficient but several thousand other extinct or endangered plants are neither accessed nor recognized. It would be great if anyone who has books, magazines, scientific papers, photographes, illustrations or other information about extinct and endangered plants would share his or hers knowledge so that we will get a comprehensive assessment or database. It would be also great if plant researchers, botanists, or conservationists from all over world would came into that forum and discuss with us. Other thematic priorities are newly discovered and rediscovered plants. From time to time researchers find real plant paradises on the unsurveyed areas of our earth, and therefor it is so important to educate people about these areas and write petitions to the governments to protect these areas. Last but not least another important topic is the Plants Conservation ex situ (for example in a Botanical Garden or in a Seed Bank) or in situ (for example in a Plants reserve). We will also think about the people and organisations without their help many plant species would no more exist.
The board is thought as sister project to Peter's Extinction Forum and the purpose is strictly educational.
The board is thought as sister project to Peter's Extinction Forum and the purpose is strictly educational.