Biodiversity projections look grim.

One- to two-thirds of all plants, animals, and other species could be lost by the end of the next century if current rates of extinction continue, according to a report presented to the International Botanical Congress in August 1999 by biodiversity expert Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Under current trends, as many as 100,000 of the Earth's estimated 300,000 plant species will disappear or be highly endangered within half a century, largely due to the destruction of habitat. At current levels of destruction, only 5 percent of tropical forests will remain in protected areas within 50 years, says the report, causing the rate of species loss to reach three or four orders of magnitude higher than the natural background extinction rate of about one species each year.

Currently, about 12 percent of plants, 11 percent of birds, and 25 percent of mammal species are extinct or are threatened with extinction according to estimates from the World Conservation Union's (IUCN) "Red List" reports (see "Environmental Intelligence, July/August 1998). And these estimates may be conservative, as scientists have catalogued only 1.6 million of the estimated 7 to 10 million species on the planet.

The Raven report outlines a seven-point strategy to slow extinction rates of plants. It calls for the creation of a global body to coordinate work monitoring and conserving threatened species and recommends that scientists share more information through resources like the Internet. It also recommends that all countries work to track and protect species within their borders, as the vast majority of threatened plants exist only within individual countries.

The report calls for increased funding to help boost research and preservation efforts, especially in developing countries, which harbor about eighty percent of the world's biodiversity, yet are home to less than twenty percent of the world's scientists. Funding is particularly needed for research on plant reproduction, on halting the proliferation of invasive species, and on conserving medicinal plants.