21 IPAs have initially been identified for northern Algeria. 8 IPAs are entirely or partly located inside national parks, while 13 others enjoy no management or protection measures.

Habitats

Algerian IPAs cover all vegetation stages present in the Mediterranean part of the country and are often marked by a large elevational range, as in the Aurès Massif (100–2,300m) and Djurdjura (600–2,300m). Several coastal IPAs (El Kala 1, Edough Peninsula, Taza and Gouraya National Parks, Sahel d’Oran, Mount Chenoua, Cape Ténès, Trara Mountains et Habibas Islands) have high plant diversity and are rich in restricted range species, which are often highly localised (stenoendemic).

Forested habitats are well represented, particularly with cedars (in Belezma, Djurdjura, Theniet El Had and Chréa National Parks, the Babor Mountains and Aurès Massif) or oaks (Quercus canariensis, Q. suber and Q. ilex). Several IPAs are rich in wetland habitats (El Kala 1 & 2, Edough Peninsula, Guerbes/Senhadja Plain, Djebel Ouahch, and Taza and Chréa National Parks).

Climate

Since Algeria is influenced by the sea, relief and elevation, its climate is classed as ‘temperate extra-tropical Mediterranean’, characterized by a long period of summer drought that varies from 3–4 months on the coast to 5–6 months on the high plains and more than 6 months in the Saharan Atlas. All Mediterranean bioclimates are represented in the north, from perhumid (Babor Mountains) to semi-arid (Sahel d’Oran).

Algerian Flora

The Algerian flora comprises approximately 4,000 taxa in 131 families and 917 genera. There are 464 national endemics (387 species, 53 subspecies and 24 varieties). The number of restricted range or locally endemic taxa in northern Algeria is 407. These include 224 endemic to Algeria alone, 124 shared with Morocco, 58 with Tunisia and one with Sicily.

Some IPAs have a flora with a particularly high proportion of national endemics or stenoendemics, such as Djurdjura National Park with over 25 sub-national and stenoendemics, and El Kala 1 & 2 and the Babor Mountains, each with 20.

Plant diversity

Libya occupies an area of about 1.7 million km2 most of which is desert. The most important areas for plant diversity are the coastal strip and mountains of the Mediterranean coastline (1900km).

In total there are approximately 1,750 plant species in Libya, 4% of which are Libyan endemics. Phytogeographically, the flora is predominantly Mediterranean, with strong links to the Eastern Mediterranean (Palestine to Greece), more so than with the rest of North Africa; particularly strong are the links to Crete. Approximately 50% of the Libyan endemics are endemic to Cyrenaica.

Important Plant Areas

5 IPAs have been identified in Libya to date: Al Jabal Al Akhdar, Tawuorgha Sebka, Jabal Nafusah, Jabal Aweinat and Messak mountain with a further 5 that require study to confirm their status as internationally significant sites for plants (Alheesha, Farwa Island, Mamarica, Jabal Al Harouj and Benghazi coast).

IPAs in Libya are found in the coastal, mountain and desert habitat types. Al Jabal Al Akhdar IPA (The Green Mountain) in the Cyrenaica region of northeast Libya is the largest and most significant IPA in Libya. The unique physiographic and climatic conditions which isolate the mountains of Cyrenaican from the rest of Libya, have resulted in Al Jabal Al Akhdar holding 75 – 80% of the Libyan flora and a significant proportion of Libya’s endemic plant species, despite only covering 1% of the Libyan territory.

The other confirmed Libyan IPAs include the hot springs and open canals of Tawuorgha and the limestone formations of Jabal Nafusah IPA which stretch 500km from the Tunisian border to the Niggaza area on the Mediterranean coast. The latter encompasses a recently established national park Sha afeen.

Threats

Libyan IPAs face several threats including development of tourism infrastructure, overgrazing of livestock, forest cutting for wood and charcoal and the spread of invasive alien species. Unregulated development at the coast is a particular threat. Planning processes are erratic and environmental impact assessments (although required by law) are seldom completed or adhered to.

Habitats

Uganda is botanically unique as the meeting point for a number of Africa’s floras, including influences from the moist Congolian forests in the west to the dry Acacia-Commiphora savanna that extends from north-eastern Uganda into the Horn of Africa.

The topology of the country also varies greatly, from moist plains and valleys associated with the African Great Lakes including Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga, to Afroalpine habitats of Ruwenzori Mountains and Mount Elgon, the former featuring one of the last remaining tropical glaciers in Africa.

Plant Species

Due to this vast range of habitats, Uganda is rich in plant taxa with over 4,800 species, at least 100 of which are endemic or near-endemic to Uganda. Unique Ugandan plant species include the rare cycad species Encephalartos whitelockii, known only from a single site globally, Mpanga Gorge. The E. whitelockii population here represents one of the most concentrated stands of cycads globally, but it has been badly damaged by the construction of a hydroelectric dam leaving the species threatened with extinction.

Threats

With a wealth of biodiversity and finite resources for conservation, prioritisation of the most critical areas will be key to conserving Uganda’s flora. Much of Ugandan economy is dependent upon subsistence agriculture, while there has also been a rise in extractive activities such as mining, oil exploration and logging for timber and fuel in recent years.

Without a clear framework focused on where the most important sites for plant diversity are, there is a great risk of losing unique species and habitats completely. Conservation of such areas will also help protect the vital ecosystem services Uganda’s flora provides, including provision of food and medicines, protection of water resources and soil fertility, and regulation of climate.

The Uganda Important Plant Areas Project

The Uganda Important Plant Areas (IPAs) project began in 2022 and is a partnership between Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Makerere University, under the Tropical Important Plant Areas programme. Activities include collaboration with in-country stakeholders, gathering data on species and habitats of conservation importance, assessing endemic and near-endemic species for the IUCN Red List and researching the threats to biodiversity and conservation activities across Uganda.

Through this work we will identify a network of Important Plant Areas with the ultimate aim of increasing representation of plants within Uganda’s conservation planning and actions.

173 Important Plant Areas (IPAs) have been identified in Ukraine as of 2021. Ukrainian IPAs cover 1.3 million ha, comprising 2.3% of the total area of Ukraine (with the Territorial sea).

Biogeography

The territory of Ukraine belongs to three biogeographical regions: Continental, Steppic, and Alpine. The Continental region includes the Polissian Lowland in the northern part of Ukraine, with large areas of sandy soils, Scots pine forests, oak forests, meadows, mires and swampy woods of different types. Natural vegetation of a more southern part of the continental region is oak, hornbeam, beech, and lime forests of plateaus, meadows in floodplains, pine and oak forests on sandy terraces of rivers. There are also small areas of the steppe vegetation confined mainly to the slopes of valleys and ravines. The Steppic biogeographical region comprises the southeastern part of Ukraine. It consists of the flatland part and the Crimean Mountains. Natural vegetation of the flatland part consists mainly of the steppe (2% of the region’s area in Ukraine), halophytic and coastal vegetation, oak and pine forests, and reed marshes. Vegetation of the Crimean Mountains has submediterranean features: there are white oak and juniper woodlands, tomillares, woods of Turkish pine and Pallas’ pine. Large areas are occupied by sessile oak, beech, hornbeam, ash forests, the steppe vegetation, and vegetation of outcrops. The Alpine biogeographical region includes the Carpathians. Largest areas are covered with beech, spruce and silver fir forests, hay meadows and pastures. Highest mountains have diverse subalpine and alpine vegetation.

Land Use

Ukraine is one of the most anthropically transformed European countries because of the presence of large areas of plains with rich soils and a warm growing season. Arable lands occupy about 54% of the territory of Ukraine, other non-natural areas – 7%, semi-natural habitats (hay meadows, pastures, highly artificial forest plantations) – 14%, and natural habitats – 25%.

Plant Species

There are about 12,000 species of plants (including ca. 4,600 species of native vascular plants) and 15,000 species of fungi and fungi-like organisms in Ukraine. Most of endemic, rare, and threatened species of Ukraine occurs in mountainous regions of the Carpathians and Crimea. Many such species occur also on chalk outcrops of eastern Ukraine, granite outcrops of the Ukrainian Shield, sands of the steppe region, etc.

Some Ukrainian IPAs are large areas (up to 300 thousand ha); they are very important for conservation of one or many habitats. Often they also contain populations of many threatened species. Some other IPAs were designated for only one rare endemic or subendemic species occurring in small natural sites surrounded by transformed areas.

Serbia has 62 IPAs. The country covers an area of over 88,000 km2 and borders Montenegro, Albania, Republic of North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. It has three biogeographic zones: the Continental, the Pannonic and the Alpine.

Climate

The southern parts, particularly the limestone regions, are strongly influenced by the Mediterranean climate. The climate is continental in the north and southeast with semi-arid summer and cold winter periods.

Habitats

The natural and semi-natural habitats are characterised by a high number of national and Balkan endemics in the mountain, forest, steppe and wetlands, and a rich limestone and serpentine flora both in the mountains and the limestone canyons and gorges.

Biodiversity

Along the main rivers, alluvial forest of white willow, white and black polar, ash and pedunculate oak, as well as small areas of marshes with rich macrophyte flora, occur. Mountainous regions of Serbia are covered by mixed oak forests. The vegetation belts above are composed of beach or beech-silver fir forests. Subalpine forest is either spruce forests in the continental mountains and Macedonian or White-barked Pine in the mountains of Kosovo and Metochia province. The limestone and serpentine gorges and canyons hold a very rich flora of numerous relict and endemic taxa. Mountain areas above the tree line are also rich in diverse chasmophytic, scree and rocky ground communities composed by endemic and Alpine orophytes.

IPAs

The IPAs identified so far have been concentrated on the mountainous areas with their many endemic and relict species, areas of the rare habitats of steppe, forest steppe and sandy steppe, and the few peat bogs, marshes and wet meadows. 56% of Serbian IPAs are nationally protected in full or in part – nearly half at a higher level of protection.

Threats

Every IPA has at least one high or moderate threat affecting it which has the potential to destroy habitat or cause sudden decline in the populations of threatened species. The most frequent threats to Serbian IPAs are land abandonment, fragmentation and invasive species but the most acute threats come from deforestation and water extraction.

A total of 320 IPAs have been identified in Italy (including 8 algae community sites), covering approximately 15% of the country. The Important Plant Areas project in Italy was promoted by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, where mapping IPAs in 2009 was the first intervention to conserve botanical biodiversity in the country.

Geography

Italy is situated in southern Europe, between the Balkan and the Iberian Peninsula. The boot-shaped peninsula protrudes into the Adriatic Sea, the Ionian Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Ligurian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. In the north, Italy borders with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia.

Italy is one of the most diverse countries in Europe in terms of geography, flora and fauna. Northern Italy is mountainous with the high peaks of the Alps range and icy glaciers. The foothills of the Alps lie in the Po River Valley and the lake district, with flat plains crossed by rivers and streams. Central Italy is dominated by hills and mountains of the Apennines Mountain range which form the north-south backbone of the peninsula. In southern Italy and islands the landscape is rugged and mountainous, with Mount Vesuvius and Etna being the only active volcanos on European mainland.

IPA Project

The IPA project collected information on 1,393 species of vascular plants, with a total of 9,745 recordings. A total of 1,087 records of species and sites of interest were provided for bryophytes, lichens, freshwater algae and fungi, with 182 overall species. With 13,979 confirmed records, regarding 167 different types, the habitats provide, together with the vascular species, the most important database for the identification of IPAs. 49 new habitats of conservation interest were identified, 4 of which were classified as being of community interest for the first time.

Fewer than 50% of the IPAs are included in protected areas. Although more than 80% have some form of legal protection, the degree of protection and conservation management may vary considerably.

Croatia has 97 Important Plant Areas, covering 964,655 hectares.

Geography

Croatia covers 56,500 km2 from the Adriatic coast to the mountains of the north. It borders with Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Hungary. There are four biogeographic zones: Pannonic, Continental, Alpine and Mediterranean which contain large numbers of Balkan endemic plants and a rich mosaic of plant communities from large areas of natural forest to grasslands, coastal and island habitats.

Habitats

Lowland Croatia is bordered by the Sava, Mura, Drava and Danube rivers. Large areas of wet oak-woods contain the greatest biological diversity of the region. Highland Croatia consists of a section of the Dinaric Alps; a ridge of karst (limestone) stretching parallel to the coast from the north-west to the south-east of the country. The highest peak is Dinara at 1,831m. The major habitats are the beech and fir forests; the high mountain rock and scree with unique endemic and relict mountain flora and fauna and remnants of the most southerly European heaths. Croatia has 6116 km of coastline including 1,231 islands, islets and reefs. The major natural features are the coastal forests and their succession stages, the stony limestone coast the islands, and the rivers, marshes and lakes of the Adriatic catchment area.

Forest (woodland) and grassland habitats are the most frequent within Croatia’s IPAs, occurring within 93% and 87% respectively. IPAs are formed from a mosaic of different habitats; heathland, cultivated and constructed habitats are present up to 25% in two thirds of IPAs.

Threats

Only 18 IPAs in Croatia are either fully or partly protected at a national level. Land abandonment is the greatest threat, affecting 62% of sites. Three quarters of IPAs are used for tourism and recreation activities. Development threatens 44% of sites and 33% are threatened by development specifically associated with tourism: coastal and island IPAs are especially vulnerable.