What it is

There are two key issues in dealing with preserving the wide variety of plant species we currently have. The first is with regards to agriculture crops, which you can learn more about in the Food Access section of Basic Needs. The second issue is the protection of non-agricultural plants which revolves around reducing the number of invasive plant species, cataloging native species, growing appropriate plants, and protecting the spaces these plants occupy.

This section is all about protecting the nearly half a million plant species on the planet, about a quarter of which are threatened by extinction. It is about protecting everything from trees in tropical rainforests to cacti in the deserts, to wildflowers in grasslands to mangroves to the native plants in your backyard. These are the plants that are the basis for life all over the world. They are what ultimately provide the food source for most other living things on the planet. Protecting them means ensuring that the plants that have been in a space for thousands of years are able to continue to exist and so the other living things that rely on them are able to continue to survive.