Calevo, Jacopo, Dixon, Kingsley, Fay, Michael F., and Nargar, Katharina (2025) A minute to midnight: advances in orchid conservation in the age of extinction. Biodiversity and Conservation, 34. pp. 5067-5073.

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Abstract

[Extract] Never before in human history have so many wild species been faced with habitat loss and decline. Orchids, among the plant families with disproportionally higher numbers of species and more threatened with extinction (Swarts and Dixon 2009; Phelps et al. 2023; Fay et al. 2025), have not been spared by this biodiversity global crisis. As the biodiversity crisis accelerates—fueled by habitat loss, fragmentation, climate instability, and unsustainable exploitation—no other plant family so acutely embodies the “minute to midnight” for conservation action. This theme is a call to action to stem the current global rates of biodiversity decline particularly focusing on orchids. The 8th International Orchid Conservation Congress (IOCC8), held from the 3–6 September 2024, brought together scientists, practitioners, community members and First Nations to discuss threats, solutions and future perspectives for orchid conservation. This special issue aims at assembling some of the significant topics arising from the Congress, offering an updated and multidisciplinary overview on challenges, opportunities and successes in orchid conservation at global, regional and local scales. A key insight from the Congress was the emerging role for communities of practice where community members become active participants in conservation actions. A number of examples including the Atlanta Botanic Garden program, the Life Orchids project, and the University of Western Australia community engagement showed how harnessing the community’s passion for orchid conservation often resulted in startling and positive outcomes. These include citizen science programmes, community awareness and education outreach, ex situ propagation through to on-ground actions including habitat protection and restoration of orchids. The concluding session of the Congress emphasized that together, as a global orchid community we can deliver the changes and improve conservation of orchids at local to global levels.

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