United Kingdom
Introduction
Plant and fungal biodiversity in the UK is generally a subset of that found on the continent of Europe, but despite this it is of great biological interest due to the great wealth of records spanning over four centuries regarding, for example, distributions and phenology. In addition, some species of bryophytes and fungi have populations of global significance in the UK. Many species of both plants and fungi are rare in the UK, either because they are at the edge of their range or due to human effects. With effects of climate change and increased demands on land, the number of rare species will only increase, and this will require increased conservation efforts. Kew has an extensive programme of UK activities relating to characterisation and conservation of our native diversity. The conservation-related activities in this programme form part of the UK government response to international conventions, notably the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992).
The UK Team at RBG Kew is composed of staff in the Jodrell Laboratory, Horticulture & Public Education, the Herbarium and Wakehurst Place including the Seed Conservation Department. We are active in Collections (DNA and seed banking and fungal cultures), Baseline Plant Diversity Research (with a focus on fungi), Comparative Plant Biology (including molecular phylogenetics, seed biology and plant fungal interactions, and biological activity of British flora and fungi), Sustainable Utilisation of Plant Resources (including documentation of uses and authentification of plant extracts traded in UK) and Conservation and Environmental Monitoring (conservation genetics, recovery programme development, reintroductions and management of nature reserves and other natural areas). Our work relates to many different groups of plants and fungi, among which orchids, bryophytes, and basiodiomycete and ascomycete fungi are major foci.
Kew’s current activities in the UK are fuelled and facilitated by long-term and successful relationships with statutory bodies, notably the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, English Nature, Countryside Council for Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage and NGOs, notably Plantlife International, universities and Wildlife Trusts. They mostly relate to targets laid out in the CBD and the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (1994), the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC, 2002) and Plant Diversity Challenge (PDC, 2004) which followed on from the CBD. Kew was a significant player in the development of both GSPC and PDC, which identify 16 targets to be met by 2010 globally and in the UK, respectively.
Notable projects are the banking of seeds of nearly all native flowering plants, propagation of a range of orchids and bryophytes for reintroduction, genetic studies of many high priority species of flowering plants, DNA banking of the UK flora and checklisting of major groups of fungi.