European Red List of Vascular Plants - European Commission

are declining. But more interestingly it needs to be noted
that the population trend is unknown for 48.2% of the
crop wild relatives, 36.7% of the policy plants and 18.6%
of the aquatic plants.
The main current threats emerging in the analysis were:
Intensified livestock farming, recreational activities,
tourism and urban development, wild plant collection,
invasive alien species, natural system modifications and
pollution.
Conclusions and recommendations
■■ Threatened European vascular plants require
further conservation actions to improve their status.
In particular: ensuring the adequate protection and
management of important plant habitats, identifying
hotspots of diversity that may then be subject to more
active conservation, drawing up and implementing
Species Action Plans for threatened species, improving
land management policies, and revising national
and European legislation, taking account of species
identified as threatened where needed.
■■ It is important to conserve both inter- and intraspecific
genetic diversity to ensure that the full range
of genetic diversity of a species is protected and in
the case of CWR, available for utilization for crop
improvement. For the in situ conservation of CWR
genetic diversity, the establishment of a European
network of genetic reserves is needed. For all vascular
plant species, the maximum range of ecogeographic
diversity should be included in the European protected
area network.
■ ■ In situ conservation measures need to be
accompanied by adequate ex situ maintenance in
botanic gardens or gene bank collections. There is
a need for systematic gap analysis of all threatened
and priority species to ensure they are being actively
conserved both in situ and ex situ.
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The knowledge base on European vascular plants
needs to be expanded. The taxonomic coverage of
this Red List needs to be increased as only around 8%
of Europe’s plant species have been assessed in this
project. Species identified as Data Deficient should be
a priority for fieldwork and research.
A co-ordinated system of vascular plant recording
and monitoring needs to be established in every
European country to improve future assessments
and assess the impact of conservation measures and
future environmental change. This will improve our
knowledge of population trends which is currently
lacking for many European plant species.
There is an urgent need for a coordinated European
approach to CWR conservation, given the growing
problem of global food insecurity resulting from climate
change and other threats (as well as the global interdependence
of nations in terms of food security). The
results of this initiative show that a significant proportion
of the CWR species assessed are threatened or are likely
to become threatened in the near future and that some
crop complexes, such as the cultivated beets, brassicas,
oat, lettuce and wheat are particularly at risk – these
species should be subject to immediate conservation gap
analysis and concerted in situ and ex situ actions.
Biodiversity and agrobiodiversity conservation
activities need to be integrated and coordinated.
Conservation actions are often hindered through
the unnecessary departmentalisation of European
biodiversity and agrobiodiversity communities
leading to duplication of knowledge, poor integration
of conservation action and limited implementation –
working more closely together will itself yield better
conservation outcomes.
The network of European plant experts needs to
be strengthened by providing training, improving
communication, and mobilisation of financial resources.
Specialist Groups play a vital role in this network and
in the implementation of conservation measures.
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