European Plant Red Listing

Issue

There is growing global concern about the current rate of biodiversity loss. Many plant species are declining to critical population levels, important habitats are being destroyed, fragmented, and degraded; and ecosystems are being destabilised as an effect of climate change, pollution, invasive species, and direct human impact.

At the same time, there is a growing awareness of how biodiversity supports livelihoods, allows sustainable development and fosters co-operation.

Definition

"Red List is a comprehensive inventory of the conservation status of species. It uses a set of relevant criteria to evaluate the risk of extinction of species and based on a strong scientific base."
(IUCN Species Survival Commission)

Importance

The overall aim of the Red Lists is to convey the urgency and scale of necessary conservation efforts to conservationists, the public and policy makers, and to motivate the community to reduce the number of species becoming extinct. Red Lists answer the most common questions, such as:

• How threatened is a particular species?
  
• What are the threats to a species?
  
• How many threatened species occur in a given country?
  
• How many known species have there been?
  

Red listing in the European Plant Conservation Strategy

Target 1.2

"European Red Lists for vascular plants, revised list for bryophytes, and preliminary Red Lists for lichens, macrofungi and other selected groups published."

Lead organisations European Plant Specialist Group of IUCN; European Council for the Conservation of Fungi (ECCF); European Committee for Conservation of Bryophytes (ECCB).

Red listing in the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation

Target 2

"A preliminary assessment of the conservation status of all known plant species, at national, regional and international levels."

Lead organisation IUCN

Red listing activities carried out in Europe

What is the conservation status of European native plants? What are the threatened species and how many species are already extinct in Europe? To answer these difficult questions, experts in many European countries need to get involved and work hand-in-hand using a coherent language, standards and methodology.

Europe is in a special position. Nearly all the European countries and many sub-regions have published Red Lists of threatened plant species. Although most of these Red Lists have recently been revised some still urgently need an update. A comprehensive overview of national Red Lists in Europe can be viewed here.

Unfortunately it is not easy to compare the results of these national Red Lists due to a lack of standard parameters used for each of them. Another reason is a limited cross-border cooperation in cases where the same population reaches neighbouring countries.

A Europe-wide Red List assessment is also important for plant conservation in the region. A European Red List was developed in 1977 and revised in 1982, with no systematic revision since. While National Red Lists remain important, the development of a European Red List is important to:

• Assist conservationists in Europe to cover all threatened European species.
  
• Assist the European Union and Commission in the further development of the Habitats Directive and the Council of Europe in the implementation of the Bern Convention.
  
• Enable the IUCN to fulfil Target 2 ("A preliminary assessment of the conservation status of all known plant species, at national, regional and international levels") of the GSPC, for vascular plants in Europe.
  
• Enable conservationists to implement other relevant GSPC targets, such as Target 5 (Important Plant Areas), Target 7 (in situ conservation of threatened species) and Target 8 (ex situ conservation of threatened species).

Other projects have been taking place in the development and update of Red Lists in Europe, not only for vascular plants but also for Fungi and Bryophyte species.

Among them:

• In May 2005, the new Red List for vascular plants of Great Britain was published. This is an exciting development because all Britain's wild plants are catalogued, not just the rarities. Planta Europa's newsletter gives more information.
  
• Red Lists of Fungi have been published in several countries, such as Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Armenia, Bulgaria and Slovakia. For more information on these projects click here.
  
• Several European countries have published national Bryophyte Red Lists, such as Austria, Bulgaria, Finland and Luxemburg. Also a Red List of European Bryophytes was published in 1995. For a complete overview of national Bryophyte Red Lists in Europe click here.

This list might be incomplete, in particular when it comes to local and national scale. If you are aware of any additional activities and projects on the development of National Red Lists, please contact the Planta Europa Secretariat, providing a one to three sentence summary and a website link. Your European Red Listing activities will then be added to this overview.

Action required

Applying Red Lists to conservation work is at least as important as the development of the Red Lists themselves. As long as no up-to date information for all plants and fungi on a European scale is available, our day-to-day work will be hindered.

Red Lists are an important conservation tool, and although the necessary information is mostly available, compiling and analysing it on a European scale is urgently needed. See this article in the Planta Europa newsletter issue November 2005, on the need for a European Red List.