Important Plant Areas are the world’s key sites for rare, threatened and socio-economically valuable plant species, rare and threatened habitats and exceptional botanical richness. We will take you on an IPA tour from Europe to the Americas to Africa and our speakers will share how IPAs help their countries to prioritise areas for legal protection and wild plant conservation, increasing national pride in their wild plant diversity, inspiring community involvement and linking scientists with conservation action.

Speakers:

Karen Inwood is Plantlife’s International Strategy Lead. Her background is working internationally with climate-vulnerable communities to safeguard their food, water and health by enriching the biodiversity of their land. She coordinated Plantlife’s contribution to the EU Farmers Pride Project to build a network for in situ conservation of plant genetic resources and has extensive experience of policy, networking and project management relating to issues of social justice, anti poverty and sustainable food systems within the UK.

Dr Jean-Michel Onana is Lecturer in Botany at University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon. He is co-chair of the IUCN SSC Central African Plant Red List Authority and former Head of the National Herbarium and the Biodiversity Program of Cameroon. He is author and co-author of various scientific books with an emphasis on plant conservation. These include a checklist of the vascular plants; a synopsis of the endemic and rare plants; the Red Data Book of the Plants of Cameroon; and many papers, including twelve news species to science in tropical Africa. Five new species to science have been named for him. 

Marisol Toledo is a biologist, with a B.Sc. degree from UAGRM-Bolivia (Thesis: ethnobotany of the indigenous Chiquitanos), M.Sc. degree from UMSL-USA (Thesis: Ethnoecology of secondary forests of indigenous Guarayos) and PhD from WUR-NL (Thesis: Neotropical lowland forests along environmental gradients). She was Research Assistant (Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado), Botanist of the Forestry Research Unit (BOLFOR Project) and Research Coordinator (IBIF). She is (co-) author of 20 books and 40 scientific articles. Currently, she is Executive Director of the Noel Kempff Museum, Professor of Biology at UAGRM and Editor-in-Chief of the online journal Kempffiana (ISSN 1991-4644).

Anna Asatryan (PhD) is a researcher at the A.Takhtajyan Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, with more than 25 years of professional experience. Her work is aimed at investigating the flora and vegetation of Armenia, with a focus on conservation. As well as her research activities, Anna actively contributes to various educational projects and the popularization of botany in Armenia. She also works to develop her country’s botanical tourism. Anna is the author of the “Remarkable Trees of Armenia” and is the national coordinator of the Important Plant Areas project.