Aljos Farjon became Chair of the Conifer Specialist Group in 1995, taking over from Chris Page who had founded and chaired the group since it was inaugurated. He began studying conifer systematics in the early 1980s with the publication of his first book, Pines, drawings and descriptions of the genus Pinus (1984, second edition 2005). At that time he was based at the Herbarium of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, where he remained until 1993 when he moved temporarily to the University of Oxford in England. Until then he had not been very active in conifer conservation matters, although he was a member of the Conifer Specialist Group. His background in conservation had more to do with nature reserves and their management in the Netherlands than with the issue of threatened species of trees on a global scale.

The Conifer Specialist Group, though it has an international membership, is a small group very much driven by a few individuals, most of whom are based in the UK. Once Aljos moved to the UK he quickly became involved and the Specialist Group published a first conservation assessment of all conifers in 1993. This was followed by more detailed assessments once the 1994 IUCN Red List Criteria were published in 1994 and he had taken over the role of Chair of the group. In 1999 the group published the Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan for Conifers. In it they reviewed the earlier assessments and published a Global Red List for Conifers.

The Conifer Specialist Group is very much an advisory body and not one that takes action on the ground in conifer conservation. However, with its links to the UK based Conifer Conservation Programme of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, the group can and does influence such conservation action, e.g. in relation to projects supported by the UK.Darwin Initiative grants scheme. Aljos’ work as a world specialist in the systematics of conifers (laid down in 8 books and over 60 papers) supports the work of the group as it provides much of the base-line information for conservation. With these two sources of information and input, the Conifer Specialist Group can achieve remarkably much for its tiny active membership.

The most recent and just completed project was to assess all the Data Deficient (DD) conifers (some 10% of the total number of taxa below genus rank or 80 species, subspecies and varieties) using herbarium specimen derived data and GIS information. Sixty of these now have an informative IUCN status, only 20 remain DD. This brings the conifers into line with the cycads as the only taxonomic groups of plants to be completely assessed. The group’s main goal for the next 2-3 years will be to repeat that exercise and thereby provide SSC with the first plant group to be assessed twice with a sufficient time interval to make it a useful group for a Red List Index, alongside amphibians and birds. Conifers, despite their modest numbers, are prime candidates for this because of their worldwide distribution in almost all land-based habitats suitable for woody plants.