Status Report for the British Virgin Islands - Royal Botanic Gardens ...

Red Listing – interpreting terms:
(see Appendix II).
Location:
In our experience the best interpretation of the IUCN term: “location” for the Puerto
Rican bank region (Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands & British Virgin Islands) equates
to a single island, excepting the Puerto Rican mainland, which can be subdivided
further. All of the other islands in our area are geographically and sometimes also
ecologically distinct areas, in which a single threatening event, such as a hurricane or
volcanic eruption, can rapidly affect all individuals of the taxon present.
Severely fragmented:
The geographic range of most of these taxa is estimated to be severely fragmented as,
according to IUCN (2001), the term “refers to the situation in which increased
extinction risk to the taxon results from the fact that most of its individuals are found
in small and relatively isolated subpopulations”. Of the 9 taxa, all but two are known
only from small islands, and those from the Puerto Rican mainland are known to be
highly restricted in distribution or even believed to be locally extirpated, e.g. Cordia
rupicola.
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