OTTAWA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- A new report on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) suggests that while the 16 targets of the decades-long plan to protect global plant are unlikely to be met, countries have made considerable progress toward achieving many of them, according to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity on Wednesday.

Such progress is the result of actions under the strategy, with several new initiatives developed specifically to address GSPC targets, which include success realized in aligning actions by the world's botanist and plant protection community through a shared set of principles and objectives and the establishment of a World Flora Online and the Global Tree Assessment.

The strategy has an overall aim to halt the loss of plant diversity, contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable development, and promote the sharing of the benefits arising from the use of plant genetic resources.

"Plant diversity is crucial in the functioning of all ecosystems," said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. "The decline of plant biodiversity is an illustration of a larger problem in our relationship with the natural world. As we work to achieve the 2050 Vision of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, botanic gardens and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation play a crucial role in protecting biodiversity and fostering stewardship."

"Like the assessment in the fifth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation shows that while there has been important progress, we need greater efforts to achieve the GSPC targets. To reach these goals in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, we will need the engagement of all actors," she added.

Importantly, many of the world's most biodiverse countries, including China, Mexico and South Africa, have developed national plant conservation strategies in response to the GSPC to promote plant conservation and bring together stakeholders, said the report.

Collectively, these countries are home to over 50 percent of the world's plant diversity and, in the case of Mexico and China, targets have been set that extend beyond 2020, the report said.

The aim of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation is to act as a catalyst for working together at all levels -- local, national, regional and global -- to understand, conserve and use sustainably the world's immense wealth of plant diversity whilst promoting awareness and building the necessary capacities for its implementation.

The strategy's 16 targets, organized around five objectives, were first agreed in 2002 and were the first targets for biodiversity conservation to be adopted at the global level by the international community.

Through the strategy, the plant conservation community has been able to engage with and contribute to the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, to be agreed next year in China.

The plant strategy has also provided an important entry point for many non-governmental organizations' support for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

It has stimulated considerable growth in networks and partnerships at national and global levels and has resulted in the development of a broadly-based, multi-stakeholder, united community, committed to ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of plant diversity into the future.