11 November 2019
State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2020
Kew launches an open call for international collaboration to produce State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2020.
A paper published by Kew scientists today in Nature Plants highlights the untapped potential of plants and fungi to provide solutions to sustainable development and calls for accelerated, responsible exploration of their properties.
This sets the scene for next year’s edition of Kew’s State of the World’s series, in which unlocking the properties of plants and fungi will feature as the major theme and for which we are calling for international, cross-disciplinary collaboration.
From 2016 to 2018, Kew has published three ground-breaking State of the World’s reports summarising our current understanding of plants (2016 and 2017) and fungi (2018), the global threats that they face, and the policies to safeguard them.
Next year, in 2020, plants and fungi will be combined for the first time in State of the World’s Plants and Fungi. The engaging public-facing report will be based on a series of peer-reviewed articles published in a special issue of the New Phytologist Trust journal Plants, People, Planet. Our aim is to achieve a truly global perspective that best reflects our collective knowledge, which is why we’re launching an open call for an international, cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Four main themes will be addressed within State of the World’s Plants and Fungi: 1) New insights into global knowledge on plants and fungi; 2) Unlocking the properties of plants and fungi to meet global challenges; 3) Collections and resources for the exploration of properties; and 4) Biodiversity policy framework.
In addition, as in previous reports, there will be a country focus chapter, which, for 2020, will be the UK and UK Overseas Territories.
Kew’s Director of Science, Professor Alex Antonelli, says,
“Never before has it been so important to unlock the untapped potential of plant and fungal diversity to contribute to sustainable development. This forms the main theme of State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2020, which provides an exciting opportunity to bring together researchers from across the globe to contribute to a synthesis of our current knowledge of plants and fungi, their conservation status and uses."
In compiling the scientific articles that will form the basis for the report, we’re reaching out to the academic community to ask interested researchers to apply to participate as co-authors. You can find out more and to declare your expression of interest at State of the World’s Plants and Fungi.
Reference
Antonelli, A., Smith, R.J. & Simmonds, M.S.J. (2019). Unlocking the properties of plants and fungi for sustainable development – a call to action. Nature Plants 5: 1100 - 1102.
