The Shenzhen Declaration on Plant Sciences: Too late or just in time?

On 29 July 2017 in the closing session of the XIX International Botanical Congress held in Shenzhen, China, nearly 7,000 plant scientists from 77 countries unanimously endorsed a statement to focus their research and educational efforts on finding solutions to the growing problems of “environmental degradation, unsustainable resource use, and biodiversity loss.” This moment was the culmination of a seven-day conference that brought together botanists from around the world to discuss and share their latest exciting research findings on a wide range of topics across the plant sciences. Yet, in addition to the scientific advances being communicated, an awareness and recognition was pervasive and much discussed throughout the week of the IBC that our planet is changing in substantial ways that will affect the social, political, and economic frameworks of our lives into the foreseeable future. And all agreed that these immense changes are the result of unbridled human activities. The Shenzhen Declaration, conceived and composed by a broadly representative group of scientists, aims to raise the awareness of botanists to the accelerating rate of environmental change around the globe. More importantly it calls on them to make a commitment to take action now in both their lifestyles and their research programs to find solutions before an environmental threshold is crossed that will inevitably lead to PhytoKeys 86: 1–2 (2017)