During week one, the five team members discover that they belong to five very diverse Plant Areas (Belgium, Burkina-Faso, Greece, Portugal and the Philippines). They select the ten requested on the base that they are most common within their local geography. Each member works on two genera each to share the workload. For each genus they studied the main aspects of this genus (scientific classification, habitat, ecology, status, threats, use and trade, and conservation). The same exercise was then repeated at the group level. That is when the team decided that - due to the fact that our team members belong to different wealth economical levels - it would be great to add an additional focus in the study scope and include “health and malnutrition”, as two critical concerns for our ecosystem survival. Furthermore, we know that the expected population explosion combined with the effects of climate change will make the situation even worse due to widespread impacts on agriculture. The poor countries in the south (e.g. Burkina Faso) are particularly vulnerable, with weaker economies and limited institutional capacities to adapt. This new focus influenced the rest of our work … 

During week 2, the research team explores the level of vulnerability of the genera. They discover that recent scientific studies conclude that plants with thicker leaves, more efficient water-use strategies, deeper roots, and higher wood density will probably be the ‘winners’. Plant species displaying these ‘loser’ traits, especially if already rare, endangered or economically important, must be the focus of current and future conservation and management strategies. As a result, they come up with a nine-fold recommendation for conservation strategy specific by climatic threat, by plant genus, by Plant Area, specific for medicinal plants, for innovative agricultural practices, highlighting also the importance of Ex-situ conservation by Botanic Garden (cryopreservation, seed banking, field gene banking, and cultivation collections). 

The final part of the voyage (week three) is about consolidating the final findings, including the differences and similarities between the various Plant Areas. In completing this activity, they feel the need to develop a methodology in order to integrate many performance indexes. They clustered them into three main categories (biodiversity, stress factors, climate change) and add two additional indexes (Environmental Overview Index and Strategy Adaptation Implementation Index). Thanks to that, the team is able to make some recommendations, conclusions and final suggestions.

Why should someone read our entire essay?
For two main reasons. The first one is to know if our 10 plant genera will be “bright eye and bushy tale” in 2050, and if they can be considered as a valuable source for the future? The second one is to travel day-by-day with us and discover our human adventure as you would read a storybook.

Clade : angiosperms

Clade : True broadleaf weeds

Clade : rosids

Clade : Fabidées

Order : Fabales

Family : Fabaceae

Subfamily : Mimosoideae

Tribe : Ingeae.

My PlantArea has a floristic formation dominated by the families Combretaceae, Leguminosae-Mimosoideae, Leguminosae-Caesalpinioideae.

In these families the 10 most widespread genera are: 

There are 18 species of the genus Accacia in my PlantArea. They are very resistant to the dry climate and survive even when the rainfall is very low.  

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235112646_Cartes_de_distribution_des_especes_du_genre_Acacia_L_au_Burkina_Faso

The vernacular names given to these species of this genus take, as the case may be, acacias, cassiers, mimosa, mulga or tamarins.
In France, we often refer to the common name "acacia" or colloquially called "wtinter mimosa"
Acacia macrostachya or "Zamnin" in the language "Moore" the majority ethnic group of my country.
https://www.mediaterre.org/afrique-ouest/actu,20160118130845.html
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_(genre)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287309803_Nutritional_potentials_of_Acacia_macrostachya_Reichend_ex_Dc_seeds_of_burkina_faso_Determination_of_chemical_composition_and_functional_properties.

Familia: Lamiaceae
Subfamilia: Lamioideae
Tribus: Lamieae
Genus: Lamium 

Clade: Angiosperms

Clade: Eudicots 

Clade: Rosids

Order: Vitales

Family: Vitaceae

Subfamily: Vitoideae

Genus: Vitis

After the PowerPoint document you find the following:

P.S. For more details, please consult our individual files in section on our "Research Topic".

At the end we advance a few conclusions:

For further details, please consult the attached document.

Our study results confirm that flora is mainly threatened by human activities which are also the major causes for the climate change acceleration. This acceleration is also responsible for a new natural selection of plants based on some traits that make them more or less vulnerable. Plants with thicker leaves, more efficient water-use strategies, deeper roots, and higher wood density will probably be the ‘winners’. Some traits are beneficial in response to multiple drivers, and plants with such a combination appear to do particularly well. In contrast, those without these traits will probably be less able to tolerate climate changes.

The study also confirms that the knowledge of the role that biodiversity (including a diversity of habitats) plays in mitigating and adapting to climate change is rapidly growing. Unfortunately, we then discovered that the policy areas for climate change and biodiversity largely remain separate. The result is a lack of robust targets for nature in climate pledges (beyond areas of forest to be planted or restored). 

Some of our group’s key findings are: 

Thanks to the above results, we are confident to conclude that most of our 10 genera will still be present in 2050 (especially Equisetum that has survived major big threats and is the single surviving genus of a class of primitive vascular plants that dates back to the mid-Devonian period – 350 + million years ago). We are also able to consider them as a promising source for the future to address malnutrition and health.

We finally concluded that “water” is like gold at the time of the Gold Rush and that it is the most valuable natural source for our ten genera survival. We therefore call for more integrative approaches and collaboration between scientists, policy makers/ implementers, private sectors, and between poor and rich countries. 

The aim of our investigation is to deliver answers to the following four questions related to the above topic:

At the end we deliver our final conclusions and recommendations, including an attempt to answer the following two concerns:

That is why we decided to additionally focus on the flora biodiversity contributing directly or indirectly to these topics. 

On the next pages, you will find a summary of the use and trade by:

    7. Conclusions & suggestions
    8. References
    9. Individual  reports