The invention relates to methods for generating or increasing the resistance, in plants, to at least one biotic or abiotic stress factor, preferably to plant pathogens, by increasing the expression of at least one Bax inhibitor 1 (BI1) protein in at least one plant tissue, with the proviso that the expression in the leaf epidermis remains essentially unchanged. The invention furthermore relates to recombinant expression cassettes and vectors which comprise a nucleic acid sequence coding for a BI protein under the control of a tissue-specific promoter, the promoter having essentially no activity in the leaf epidermis. The invention furthermore relates to recombinant plants transformed with said expression cassettes or vectors, to cultures, parts or recombinant propagation material derived from these plants, and to the use of same for the production of foodstuffs, feeding stuffs, seed, pharmaceuticals or fine chemicals.