Plants in practice

Plants are critical to professional ecology (not to mention to life on earth), but we believe that the importance of plants (including lower plants) is not sufficiently reflected in professional practice: not in the policy and guidance that underpin our practice, not in the botanical skills of ecologists and not in the resources given to training staff. We believe that the lack of guidance together with often low levels of competence in plant and habitat identification could, and do, lead to the under-valuing of and loss or damage to important plant populations and habitats.