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Red Listing for tree conservation and restoration

Volume 5 Number 1 - January 2008

Assessing the conservation status of plants in the wild is a vital component of biodiversity conservation planning. Since 1963 when Sir Peter Scott first established the Red Listing system, the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List Categories have been widely acknowledged as the international standard for species conservation assessment. Initially a set of five categories of threat was adopted: Endangered, Vulnerable, Rare, Indeterminate, and Not Threatened. These were in use until replaced in 1994 by a new objective system of categorisation which, in a modified form, remains the IUCN Red List system in use today.

IUCN cautions that the category of threat applied to a species using the Red List system does not in itself determine priorities for action. It suggests that other factors such as costs, logistics, chances of success and other biological characteristics of the species need to be taken into account (IUCN, 2001). Degree of threat does however clearly have a significant impact in prioritisation of species for conservation action and the process of applying the categories and criteria helps to define the conservation action required. If the species is identified as Endangered due to restricted range and declining and fragmented habitat, for example, habitat conservation and restoration may be inferred as an appropriate response. If the species is Endangered due to population decline caused by levels of exploitation, management of harvesting should be considered as at least part of the solution.

In addition to helping to define species conservation actions, Red List information supports various assessments of the state of ecosystems worldwide. It is used to help identify Biodiversity Hotspots as defined by Conservation International; Important Plant Areas, as defined by Plantlife International and was used in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Red list information is also used to define High Conservation Value forests, initially defined by the Forest Stewardship Council (see p 7) and red list information specifically for tree species is used in the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment.

Target 2 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) calls for A preliminary assessment of the conservation status of all known plant species at national, regional and international levels. This target is very important as a baseline for implementation of other GSPC targets relating for example to in situ and ex situ conservation of plant species. IUCN is the lead facilitating agency for Target 2.

At present there are 8,447 plant species recorded as threatened in the 2007 IUCN Red List. Progress in red listing for plants is widely acknowledged to be unimpressive. Problems include the perception that the current IUCN Red List categories and criteria are complicated and difficult to apply; the requirement for relatively extensive supporting documentation; and lack of motivation when many countries have their own national red lists using different categories of threat. In response to the shortfall in data collection, IUCN has developed RapidList to speed up preliminary assessments and this provides an effective way to contribute to GSPC Target 2 (see Box 1).

Full red listing remains the preferred option for many experts involved in Red Listing particularly where some leeway in the level of supporting documentation is allowed. Currently 5,643 of the plants included as threatened in the 2007 IUCN Red List are tree species many of which were recorded at a time when the documentation requirements were more relaxed. Of these 1,002 tree species are Critically Endangered. Various approaches to tree red listing are ongoing as described further below and the momentum is increasing using a pragmatic approach to the use of the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. It is vital that we speed up this process so that tree conservation receives the attention it deserves.

In the early days plant red listing was coordinated by the IUCN/Species Survival Commission (SSC) Threatened Plant Specialist Group with a Secretariat based at Kew. As lists of threatened plants were compiled they were sent to botanic gardens to find out where species were in cultivation. Data received were stored in a central database. The role of collating information on threatened plants in ex situ collections was subsequently taken on and developed by BGCI. Now of course botanic gardens and arboreta can enter their collection data online to BGCI’s online PlantSearch database (www.bgci.org/plantsearch) and compare this with information in the IUCN Red List.

Over time IUCN/SSC established a range of Specialist Groups to undertake red listing and action planning for plant species. Currently there are 28 such groups involved to a varying extent in these processes. Undertaking red list assessments for plants is a dispersed activity undertaken by individual IUCN/SSC Specialist Groups and also various botanical institutions such as Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; Missouri Botanical Garden; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Smithsonian Institution. Data are collated by the IUCN Species Programme which is based in Cambridge, UK.

The IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group has been actively involved in undertaking assessments of the conservation status of tree species since its establishment in 2003. The Secretariat of the Group is now hosted by BGCI providing a direct link between the collection of data on species in the wild and their status in ex situ collections. The advantage of such a link is that BGCI and its members can help to select priority groups of trees (for example those of ornamental as well as ecological value) to be assessed using the IUCN categories and criteria, can help with the assessments and directly utilise the resulting data in conservation planning. In addition to promoting and implementing red listing, the second function of the Global Tree Specialist Group is to provide advice to the Global Trees Campaign, an initiative established by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and Fauna & Flora International (FFI). The Global Trees Campaign is now being re-developed as a joint initiative by FFI and BGCI with input from UNEP-WCMC on a project basis.

The Global Tree Specialist Group (GTSG) has undertaken a range of regional tree red list assessments for Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Guatemala, dry forest trees of Central America, cloud forests of Mexico and has worked with the Cuban Plant Specialist Group on an assessment of the trees of Cuba. Workshops were held as part of the assessment process in each case (except for Ethiopia and Eritrea) and the workshops were also used to assess priorities for conservation action through the Global Trees Campaign. Current projects resulting from the workshops include a detailed survey of nine threatened Pyrus species in the Caucasus involving experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Another project is underway in Krgyzstan on the conservation needs of two of the most threatened apple species in the country, Malus niedzwetzkyana and Malus sieversii.

In parallel with the regional tree conservation assessments, the Global Tree Specialist Group has also undertaken global evaluations of the conservation status of selected genera: Magnolia, Quercus and Acer and has started working on Diospyros and Rhododendron. Workshops to assess the conservation status of species are also used to define priorities for conservation action. The Red List of Magnoliaceae was published in April 2007 following an extensive datagathering and consultation exercise. The Red List identifies 131 species of Magnoliaceae as threatened – over half the known taxa in the family. Of these, 89 are listed as Critically Endangered and Endangered.

BGCI is now undertaking a comprehensive survey of ex situ collections of Magnolias as a basis for planning restoration action for Critically Endangered and Endangered species. So far we have received information from 181 gardens and this is being compiled in BGCI’s PlantSearch database. More detailed information is being requested on the Magnoliaceae species held in the collections, including data on the origin and verification of material, related conservation and recovery programmes, methods of and expertise in cultivation and propagation. In 2008 we will move ahead with planning workshops in China, the Caribbean and Colombia to maximise the potential for on the ground conservation action.

Global Trees Campaign projects have already been undertaken for five target Magnolia spp. identified as priorities at a Magnolia red listing workshop held in Kunming, China in 2004. One project, for example, currently being undertaken by the Kunming Botanic Garden working with FFI is reinforcing the wild population of M. sinica, reduced to just 10 individuals in the wild, with saplings found in various nurseries during project surveys.

The Red List of Oaks has recently been published. The assessment includes 207 species leaving around 300 for future evaluations. 29 species are currently considered to be Critically Endangered or Endangered. A BGCI survey of ex situ collections will take place shortly using the same approach as taken for Magnolias. Then priority restoration activities will be planned.

Recently a highly successful workshop was held at the University of British Colombia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research in Vancouver to review the conservation status of Acer spp. in the wild and to assess priorities for conservation action. A complete assessment of the Acer genus was undertaken with 19 species categorized as Critically Endangered or Endangered. At the workshop priorities for immediate action were highlighted for six Chinese species which are Critically Endangered and in need of immediate conservation attention. One such species is Acer pentaphyllum. Although safe in cultivation, the fate of wild populations of this species is extremely precarious. Another Critically Endangered species is A. yangbiense which is currently known from less than ten individuals in an area of mixed forest, close to agricultural land in the province of Yunnan. Ex situ conservation is the only hope for saving this species, at least in the short term.

A regional workshop to assess the conservation status of Diospyros and palms in SE Asia was organized by BGCI and hosted by the College of Forestry, University of the Philippines, Los Baños in June, 2007. Nineteen participants from throughout the region attended and began the process of entering data on palms and ebonies into the Data Entry Module of IUCN’s Species Information Service (SIS). Dr Scot Zona from Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Chair of the Palm Specialist Group provided training in the application of IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. It was agreed that by the end of 2007, the conservation status of all endemic palms in the region should be assessed and a regional checklist of ebonies compiled. The ebony work will feed into a global evaluation of the genus.

BGCI also plans to assess the conservation status of Rhododendron species as a basis for prioritising conservation action for globally threatened species within the genus. There are over 800 species of Rhododendron occurring in the wild extending from Europe to Papua New Guinea with one species in Australia. Only 11 species are currently included in the IUCN Red List but many more species are known to be under threat in the wild. BGCI plans to work closely with the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (RBGE) in undertaking this project. Marion Mackay a member of the GTSG based at the Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, New Zealand and her research student Ahmed Fayaz, are currently helping with an initial literature review. A preliminary list of candidate threatened species will be presented at the International Rhododendron Conference to be held at RBGE in May 2008.

Information on the conservation status of individual tree species is valuable for conserving both the species and for supporting habitat conservation. As the species assessments continue, the true scale of the threats to wild plants becomes apparent. Efforts at restoration will become increasingly important as will translocation to new sites in response to global climate change. GSPC Target 8 calls for 10 percent of Critically endangered species to be in restoration programmes by 2010. Can we achieve this goal for trees?

References

  • IUCN. 2001. Red List categories andcriteria. Version 3.1. IUCN Species Survival Commission, Gland, Switzerland.
Sara Oldfield
BGCI
Descanso House, 199 Kew Road,
Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3BW UK.
Email: sara.oldfield@bgci.org
Internet: http://www.bgci.org