SANBI to host the World Flora Online Consortium meeting
The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), a member of the World Flora Online Consortium, will be hosting the 6th Council Meeting
About 400,000 species of plants are known worldwide and possibly another 50,000 are yet to be discovered. Information on the world’s plant species is often difficult to access but may hold the key to support the needs of society through development of healthy communities and ecosystems, effective conservation and management of threatened species, and food security. The foundation to knowledge of plant biodiversity is taxonomy and therefore a complete inventory of all plants in the form of a World Flora Online is urgently needed.
The World Flora Online Consortium is a team of 34 institutions from across the globe that has been put together to address Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation under the governance of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The aim of Target 1 is to create a global online Flora by 2020.
The World Flora Online Consortium was formed in 2012 by four institutions: The Missouri Botanical Garden, the New York Botanical Garden, the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The project was officially launched at the 11th Conference of the Parties to the CBD in October, 2012, where after institutions and organizations from across the world were invited to participate. SANBI was tasked to participate as one of the Consortium’s members and to coordinate and deliver a national Flora online (e-Flora of South Africa project) to contribute to the WFO.
Since the formation of the World Flora Online Consortium, five meetings have been held since 2013 in Edinburgh, St Petersburg, Geneva, Rio de Janeiro, and New York. SANBI is privileged to be host to the 6th meeting.
For more information and to arrange an interview please contact:
Dr M. Marianne le Roux
e-Flora Coordinator
South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
Pretoria National Botanical Gardens
2 Cussonia Avenue, Brummeria, Pretoria
Tel: +27 (0)12 843 5124
Cel: +27(0) 82 908 0035
Email: m.leroux@sanbi.org.za
Web: www.sanbi.org