| Jamaica been placed on the 'Red List'. |
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Although ranking among the top 200 most important plant locations in the world, Jamaica has been placed on the 'Red List' of endangered plants by the World Conservation Union. It is one of the 10 worst affected areas worldwide as well over 33,000 of the 270,000 known species of vascular plants are threatened.
Of the 3,200 known species of flowering plants, 900 are endemic or unique to the island, and 632 of these in various stages of peril with populations of fewer than 100. These very limited plant populations are of great potential importance to medicine and science. Andreas Oberli, Director of the Plant Conservation Centre at Hope Gardens says that the only way to avert the current threat to their survival would be to immediately begin conservation and reproduction by encouraging householders to buy native rather than imported plants. |
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The Plant Conservation Centre says well forested areas in Jamaica fell from 32 percent in the 1920s, to 18 percent in the 1950s and to a mere 6 percent in the 1970s.
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The Rural Agricultural Development Committee has introduced plastic yam sticks as an alternative to cutting yamstick saplings as a way to prevent deforestation.
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