Last month a UN report concluded that virtually all indicators of the future diversity of life on Earth are "heading in the wrong direction".
The Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO) said that "unprecedented efforts" would be needed to achieve the internationally-agreed aim of slowing the decline in species richness by 2010.
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The groups behind this week's Kew meeting - the government's Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the charity Plantlife International and the Royal Botanic Gardens itself - paint a similarly grim picture for Britain's plants.
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The groups say in a joint statement that only 20% of threatened flowering plants are currently recognised as priorities for conservation, whereas the government's stated aim is to have 60% of threatened plants actually conserved.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4944178.stm