Wednesday 28 September 2022

Your appetite could spell the end of palm trees!

Your appetite could spell the end of palm trees!

More than a thousand species of palm trees could go extinct to make food, drink and furniture.

That’s according to a study by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which reveals that more than half the world’s palm trees are at risk.

Palm trees are commonly used for the farming of coconuts, palm oil, dates and the making of furniture, rubber and ropes.

Regional and lesser-known species are those that could go extinct, which local people rely heavily on for their lifestyles.

With the use of machine learning software, the researchers have been able to find out exactly which species are in danger and locate them.

Dr Steven Bachman, Research Leader at Kew, said: “With these predictions we can help to prioritise conservation activity and to target species with further conservation work in the countries where they are most at risk.”

Priority countries for palm conservation include Madagascar, Hawaii, Jamaica, New Guinea and Vietnam.

“We need to do all we can to protect biodiversity and that encompasses more than a thousand palm species that we now know may be threatened,” added Dr Sidonie Bellot.

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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