IUCN's Species Survival Commission is a network of some 7000 species experts that contribute species information from the field to IUCN in order to ultimately influence policy, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity or national policy. Within this network of approximately 115 species Specialist Groups, 29 are botanically focused. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently holds records for over 45,000 plants and animals, yet only 12,000 are for plants. In order to increase the number of Red List assessments for plants, the capacity of the botanical SSC network (and the international botanical conservation community) needs to be increased through training these experts in the techniques for determining the conservation status of species.

In June 2009 the IUCN Species Programme was requested by the IUCN SSC China Plant Specialist Group to come to China to train the members in the application of the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. The China Plant Specialist Group (CPSG) in collaboration with the Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) is mandated to assess the status of China's flora before the end of 2010 to deliver key botanical information for conservation in China and a major dataset in the 2010 Year of Biodiversity. To capitalize on a local training opportunity and to create an opportunity for important networking between IUCN SSC groups, the workshop invitation was extended to the Korean Plant Specialist Group and the Japanese Plant Red List Authority. Although only four members from Korea and one member from Japan were able to attend, this workshop was a landmark occasion because IUCN had never previously hosted a training workshop for more than one plant Specialist Group together. All groups expressed their thanks for the chance to share ideas with one another and we expect that collaboration between three neighboring botanical SSC groups will now increase as a result.

The workshop was hosted by IBCAS in Beijing, China, and took place from 15-19 June 2009, and included two trainers from IUCN Species Programme at headquarters (Julie Griffin and Jim Ragle) 25 participants from the CPSG, 4 participants from the Korea Plant Specialist Group and 1 participant from the Japanese Plant Red List Authority.

Understanding how to apply the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (version 3.1) and how to use the software for Red Listing Species Information Service (SIS) were the primary objectives of the workshop. In addition, we wanted to address the CPSG's need for assistance in launching a major project to generate a national red list of plants by providing an overview framework and "red list roadmap". Secondary objectives were to facilitate networking between SSC members in the Asia region, strengthen links between IUCN staff and SSC members and promote Red Listing in Asian countries.

The workshop was a great success with all participants actively participating and thanking IUCN for clarifying the scope, process and criteria for the IUCN Red List. Feedback forms completed by participants at the end of the week were extremely positive and indicated that the most important new information gained from the workshop were a deeper understanding of the IUCN Red List, an opportunity for networking, and the ability to use SIS. Other comments in the feedback forms included recognition of having mastered some of the more difficult concepts of the Red List criteria system.

Without this training course, the China Plant Specialist Group may have embarked on one of the largest red list assessment initiatives to date without proper training in the Red List framework or the ability to use SIS. As a result of this workshop, 36 SSC members were trained in the application of the Red List Categories and Criteria and SIS, and the China Plant Specialist Group now has the capacity to produce high quality assessments that can be accepted for the global IUCN Red List. China has 34,000 plant species, of which over 16,000 are endemic, so we are very excited to support our SSC Specialist Group on a critical assessment of the flora of one of the world's most biodiverse countries!

Positive outcomes were not limited to the preparation of the Chinese Red Listing team, but extended to an improved relationship between IUCN secretariat and the Korean and Japanese plant groups. These two groups plan to share what they learned in follow-up meetings in their own countries. The Korean Group has requested IUCN to conduct a similar training workshop for the entire Korean Plant Specialist Group in 2010 and the Japanese Red List Authority is now considering using the Red List approach to re-assess many of their plants that were assessed under a different methodology that is not a globally accepted standard. These strengthened links to the members of the Species Survival Commission are very important to IUCN.

IUCN Species Programme thanks IBCAS and the IUCN SSC China Plant Specialist Group for their warm welcome and hospitality and looks forward to continuing to work together to support the China Red List of Plants for 2010.

（written by Julie Griffin at 2009-07-01）