At the meeting of the CBD’s Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) in Geneva, a Recommendation was agreed that calls on the Conference of the Parties at COP15 as follows:

“The Global Partnership on Plant Conservation is invited, with the support of the Secretariat, to prepare a set of complementary actions related to plant conservation to support the implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework…. ..to be considered by a meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice following the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties”

The Recommendation also welcomes “with appreciation, the work undertaken by the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation in promoting plant conservation and contributing to the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity”.

This is great news and gives a green light for a post-2020 continuation of the GSPC in the framework of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

We are grateful to the Government of the Republic of South Africa with the support of the Africa Group of Parties at the SBI meeting for proposing this text, and for the support expressed by Colombia and the European Union. The strong expressions of support for a continuation of the GSPC after 2020 from a range of CBD Parties at earlier SBSTTA 24 meetings during 2021 were also influential.

BGCI also wants to acknowledge the work of colleagues from RBG Kew and Plantlife International in raising the profile of plants in-person at the Geneva meeting.

We encourage you to watch this inspiring interview with Monica Carlotti from Plantlife International: