Certificate of Plant Conservation

Unit 1 – Scope and Nature of Plant Conservation

• Plant diversity
• A definition of plant conservation
• Three major reasons to care
• Measuring the scale of the problem
• Six main reasons for conservation
• Eight principles for conservation success
• Raising awareness

Unit 2 – Policy, Legislation and Organisations

• International conventions and legislation
• Convention on international trade in endangered species (or cites)
• Three levels of regulation of trade
• The convention on biological diversity (or CBD)
• The global strategy for plant conservation (or GSPC)
• National conventions and legislation
• Conservation organisations
• International and global organisations
• Governmental organisations
• Regional and national organisations
• Public-based organisations
• Private protected areas and gardens
• Local organisations

Unit 3 – Protection and Preventing Degradation

• Protection from damage
• Protected areas
• Heritage values
• Planning for protected areas
• Pre-planning phase
• Work out the protected area values
• Analysis of values and number of threats
• Gap analysis
• Drafting a management plan
• Protected area networks
• Challenges of protected areas
• How is the red list used?
• Informing policy and conventions
• Informing conservation planning
• Improving decision-making
• Education and raising awareness
• Land sparing and sharing
• Weeds
• Soil degradation
• Types of soil degradation
• Control of erosion
• Control methods for salinity
• Loss of soil fertility
• Pollinator management

Unit 4 – Restoration of Damaged Ecosystems

• Restoring ecosystems
• Priorities for ecological restoration
• Recovery rates
• Restoring biodiversity
• Restoring function
• Restoring connectivity
• Restoration projects
• Choosing a target state for a restoration project
• Principles of ecological restoration
• 1: Establish a reference ecosystem
• 2: The level of degradation and resilience determine the intensity of restoration required
• 3 Clearly defined goals with metrics that can be assessed over time
• 4: Whenever possible, aim for a full recovery of the restoration site
• 5: Integrate types of knowledge, and draw on all types of knowledge
• 6: Engaging with people
• There are 4 main approaches to restoration
• Stages of ecological restoration
• The conservation-restoration approach to restoring damaged ecosystems
• Selecting restoration sites for conservation
• Ecosystem functions and the regeneration/restoration approach
• Undertaking a conservation-restoration project

Unit 5 – Restoring Populations

• Plant conservation strategies and practices
• Establishing a new self-propagating population
• Acquiring plants or propagules of the threatened species
• Raising new plants, including eliminating the risk of escape
• Researching symbionts such as pollinators
• Controlling pests (including herbivores) and diseases
• Site selection and local engagement
• Long-term storage of germplasm
• A successful case-study – the international conifer conservation programme (ICCP)
• The pivotal role of horticulture in plant conservation

Unit 6 – Genetic Conservation

• Genetic diversity
• Representation of global plant genetic diversity
• Assessment of genetic diversity in plants
• Need for germ plasm conservation
• Germplasm storage and conservation
• Ex situ conservation
• In vitro conservation
• Methods involved in in vitro conservation
• Field gene banks and botanical gardens
• In situ conservation
• Natural reserves or genetic reserves
• On-farm and home garden conservation
• Recording and recalling evolutionary history

Unit 7 – Ecosystem Conservation

• Ecosystem conservation – pollinators, soils, environments
• Selecting areas for conservation
• Forest conservation
• Soil conservation
• Pollinators
• Drone conservation
• Botanical gardens
• Wild conservation
• 3D modelling

Unit 8 – Community Action

• Four major groups involved in plant conservation
• Citizen science and collaboration
• Training
• Community-led conservation
• Case study: Kasigau Corridor, Kenya
• First nations involvement
• Case study: great bear rainforest
• Raising awareness
• Case study: Esk’s Mount Glen Rock and wildlife

Unit 9 – Adjusting to Environmental Change – the Future of Conservation

• Conservation and climate changes
• Plant responses to climate changes
• Migration away from new and different conditions
• Adaptation to new and different conditions
• Tolerance of new and different conditions
• Local extinction due to new and different conditions
• Novel threats to plants as a result of climate changes
• Incoming species
• Changes in fire regimes
• Flooding and drought
• Natural capital
• Nature-based solutions
• Ex-situ conservation of plants
• Conservation of plants of plants in the Anthropocene