Plants need a 'new deal' to stem their decline, warns Kew director {video at link}

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/04/plants-new-deal-kew

People around the world need to embrace a "new deal" to recognise the economic, health and environmental benefits of plants, according to the outgoing director of Kew Gardens in London. A fifth of the planet's plant species are in danger of extinction within the next century, said Prof Stephen Hopper in an exclusive interview with the Guardian, and governments around the world needed to make firm plans to reverse the decline.

"We're at a crossroads in many ways, we now have half the remaining wild vegetation on the planet left that was around 200-300 years ago," said Hopper, who will leave his position as chief executive and chief scientist at Kew Gardens in a few weeks, after six years at the top. "It's really important for us to decide, as a global community, do we want to care for what remains and get into the business of repairing and restoring diversity? Or continue on the path of ever more incursions into wild places in the hope that human beings will be able to exploit resources and continue with a reasonable quality of life?"

Hopper said there were reasons to be optimistic, because people and institutions around the world had already demonstrated that conservation and restoration programmes could work in turning the tide against ecological degredation. All that was needed was to ramp up the speed and scale of the efforts, he said.

"All the indicators suggest that a new deal of some sort needs to occur with biodiversity and plant life in particular," said Hopper.