Our Mission and Vision
Oya is a Geneva-based non-profit Association dedicated to global plant conservation through education and communication on threatened plant species. Our core mission is to raise public awareness of the invaluable role of plant diversity—the very foundation of every ecosystem on Earth—with a particular focus on vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered plants most at risk from habitat loss and climate change.
We envision a future where the continuing loss of plant diversity is halted, ensuring the functioning of the planet and our collective survival. We believe that by fostering understanding and engagement, we can inspire a global movement to protect these essential species for generations to come.
Our Approach: Education and Communication
We operate as an educational resource center, promoting the critical need to protect, preserve, and conserve threatened plantae from around the world. Recognizing that we are but one of many actors concerned with the life of plants, climate, and environmental ecosystems, and their ongoing changes, our work is structured around two key initiatives:
- Oya Learning Hub: Our educational content, including learning materials on threatened plant morphology and broader ecological topics, is designed to bring plant conservation to audiences who may not typically encounter it through formal science channels. These resources make the case, accessibly and visually, that plants matter to ecosystems, climate, and human life.
- Oya Portraits: This initiative provides the public with a unique way to engage directly with threatened plants. It enables the observation and documentation of individual species in the field, building a living record that supports conservation monitoring and research. Oya Portraits moves the public from passive awareness to active contribution, generating records with significant conservation value.
Alignment with Global Conservation Frameworks
Oya operates within established international policy frameworks, ensuring our efforts are coordinated and impactful on a global scale. We align our work with:
- The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC): This "Plan to Save the World's Plant Species" grew out of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The GSPC highlights the importance of plants and the ecosystem services they provide. OYA contributes to the GSPC's 21 Voluntary Complementary Actions (adopted at CoP16 in 2024), which are fully aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
- The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF): Oya's work directly contributes to Target 21 of the KMGBF, which calls for data, knowledge, and awareness of biodiversity to be made accessible to the public, and for citizen participation in its monitoring and conservation.
Specifically, Oya addresses GSPC Action 21(a) – Public Awareness, by raising public awareness of the value of plant diversity, and GSPC Action 21(e) – Public Documentation, by supporting the identification, documentation, monitoring, and conservation of plant diversity in cooperation with scientific institutions.
Our Partnerships
We aim to partner with leading conservation organizations to support their research and assessment efforts, particularly those cataloging the most threatened species. Our principal partners include:
- The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Oya's work aligns with the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ and the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas. We are particularly concerned with plants facing a higher risk of global extinction, specifically those listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable.
- Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI): We work towards partnerships with organizations like BGCI to further our shared goals in plant conservation.
Our Artistic Inspiration
The tradition of painting plants faithfully and beautifully is a long one. We find particular resonance in the work of Marianne North (1830–1890), the Victorian artist who travelled the world independently to paint plants in their natural habitats — vivid, immersive, and emotionally present. Her permanent gallery at Kew, housing all 833 of her oil paintings, remains one of the only galleries in the world dedicated entirely to a single female artist's work. Oya's artists are invited to carry that same spirit forward: faithful to the plant, but alive to its beauty.
The Meaning Behind Our Name
The name "OYA" is inspired by "Igne Oyasi," a Turkish phrase referring to embroidery on the edge of a garment, often featuring lace flowers. This ancient art form traditionally represented flowers and carried deep cultural meanings. We embraced this wonderful tradition and expanded upon it to create Oya, a platform for plant conservation, symbolizing the intricate beauty and delicate nature of the plant world we strive to protect.
Our Legal Structure
Oya, Conservation for the Next Generation! is a non-profit Association governed by its statutes and, by Articles 60 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code. We are politically neutral and non-denominational, focusing solely on our mission of plant conservation.
