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Number of IPAs:109
IPA Area: 280,000 hectares
IPA biogeographical zone: Boreal
Estonia covers 45,000 km2
There is a total of 109 IPAs in Estonia, covering over 280,000 hectares, which are all located in the Boreal biogeographical zones.
Estonia covers just over 45,000 km2 in north-east Europe, on the shores of the Baltic Sea. The country borders Russia and Latvia and has one biogeographical zone, the Boreal. Estonia’s natural and semi-natural vegetation consists mainly of forest, mires, grasslands and coastal habitats. The Alvar forests and Alvar meadows are characteristic habitat types of the north-western and western part of Estonia and the Baltic Islands.
Forests are the most frequent IPA habitat, followed by grassland, then mire, bog and fen habitats. Inland water habitats and many coastal habitats are well represented and there are four IPAs with marine habitats, including two IPAs which are 100% marine.
Apart from nature conservation activities within protected areas, the most frequent land uses in IPAs are tourism and recreation, forestry, haymaking or mowing, grazing animals, and to a lesser extent hunting.
Forestry practices threaten almost half of IPAs. Recreation and tourist development is also a major threat. Abandonment and reduction of land management is a high or significant threat, followed by development (transport/infrastructure and urban), burning of vegetation and water management practices.
Kihnu Island, Estonia
Nigula Nature Reserve, Estonia
Muraka Nature Reserve, Estonia
Number of IPAs: 49
IPA Area: 18% of country’s territory
IPA biographical zones: Alpine, Continental
Republic of Macedonia covers 26, 000 km2
The Republic of North Macedonia has 42 Important Plant Areas, covering almost 18% of the country’s territory. It covers an area of almost 26,000 km² with mountain terrain in the west and east, and lowland habitats in the centre. It borders Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Kosovo and Serbia.
It contains two biogeographic zones, the Alpine and the Continental. The biogeographic division used within the country is of a finer scale and includes sub-mediterranean and pontic steppes. The valleys located deep in the continental part have a strong Mediterranean influence.
Forest (woodland) and grassland are the most frequent habitats, occurring on 85% and 67% of IPAs respectively. Where these habitats occur they are often the dominant vegetation types, especially on the 18 mountainous IPAs.
The country has comparatively a very high level of local and Balkan endemic species, and relict species in the mountains, forests and “steppes” of the lowlands. 3.6% of the vascular flora is endemic including two endemic bryophyte species and 114 endemic vascular plant species. The percentage of near endemic (Balkan endemic) species is considerably greater. Many species reach the borders of their range in the country and the diversity of plant communities is also high.
Twelve IPAs are cross border IPAs with neighbouring countries and only 14 of these are protected at national level. Conservation measures within those IPAs in national parks include measures for forests, but rarely for plant species. Although the Republic of North Macedonia has ratified almost all conventions for biodiversity protection, the conservation status of plants and habitats is not favourable.
Forestry and stock based agriculture is the predominant land use within Macedonian IPAs.
Poor forestry practices threaten 69% of sites, mostly at high threat intensity. Wetlands are also particularly threatened and a third of IPAs suffer from water mismanagement, notably from dams and hydropower units. Development is a concern at over 50% of sites – predominantly tourist development.
Information leaflet
Number of IPAs: 57
Area of IPAs: 3% of total land area
Image © I. Darbyshire / RGB Kew
In total, 57 Important Plant Areas (IPAs) have been identified covering just 3% of Mozambique’s terrestrial land area. The IPAs of Mozambique were identified as part of the Tropical Important Plant Areas programme by partners from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique, Eduardo Mondlane University and the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology.
These sites encompass important populations of over 80% of Mozambique’s threatened plant taxa (over 270 threatened taxa) and around two thirds of the country’s endemic and range-restricted species (over 370 taxa). Sites range in landscape scale, the largest being Panda-Manjacaze IPA covering 2,599 km2 of wetland, miombo and dry forest mosaic, to Bobole IPA with an area of just 0.23 m2 focussed largely on the Raphia australis population within Bobole Botanical Reserve.
A range of threatened and restricted habitat types are encompassed within the IPA network such as: montane forests rich in endemic species, Icuria Coastal Dry Forest with stands dominated by the endemic and Endangered species Icuria dunensis, and Cheringoma Limestone Forest, Mozambique’s only forest occurring on limestone substrate.
Mozambique’s rich and varied flora consists of over 6,000 native and naturalised plant taxa, 270 of which are strict-endemic and 400 near-endemic taxa. Mozambique also encompasses parts of three biodiversity hotspots (Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa, Maputaland–Pondoland-Albany and Eastern Afromontane) and has six proposed Centres of Plant Endemism.
Endemic and near-endemic plants are particularly at risk, with many being threatened by habitat loss, particularly due to agricultural expansion. Around 60% of Mozambique’s endemic and near-endemic plant taxa are threatened with extinction as a result. The dependence of much of Mozambique’s population on subsistence agriculture and a growing human population puts huge pressure on Mozambique’s habitats and unique flora. Most of the IPAs themselves are impacted by these threats and no single IPA is threat-free; however, conservation of these priority areas for Mozambique’s flora would make a significant contribution towards protecting these species for future generations.
To this end, the Mozambique Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) team are using the IPA network as the focus for both in situ and ex situ conservation projects. Seed banking of Mozambique’s threatened, endemic and socio-economically important plant taxa will use the IPAs identified as target sites for collection, while conservation initiatives are underway to protect areas of the threatened Icuria Coastal Dry Forest habitat within IPAs in Nampula and Zambézia provinces of Mozambique, and to restore the Raphia australis population within Bobole IPA.
Project information
Information about critical sites for plant diversity in the tropics
Steep granite slopes with Encephalartos turneri and Euphorbia mlanjeana by I. Darbyshire
Sera de Ribáuè, with Aloe Ribauensis in the foreground by I. Darbyshire
Number of IPAs: there is no full Flora of the New Guinea ecoregion at present
New Guinea covers 2,500 km from west to east
New Guinea is the largest tropical island in the world. Lying just below the equator, it spans about 2,500 km from west to east. There is no full Flora of the New Guinea ecoregion, however there is a recent checklist of the vascular plant species (Cámara-Leret et al. 2020). New Guinea is also relatively under-collected, with fewer than 25 collections per 100 km2 throughout the mainland, with fewer records in Indonesian New Guinea compared to Papua New Guinea.
Its complex topography, with mountains up to 4,884 m elevation, and diverse range of ecosystems, from mangroves to alpine vegetation, support a vast amount of plant diversity, with at least 9,300 species (68%) endemic to the island.
New Guinea is one of the last places in South-east Asia with large areas of continuous forest. However, this is under threat from mining, palm oil concessions, timber extraction and infrastructure development. There is an urgent need to understand how New Guinea’s plant diversity is distributed across the island, how it evolved, what threats there are, and how it will cope with land use change and predicted climate change to inform focused and coordinated conservation actions.
The present Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) project (2022 to 2024) is focussed on the Indonesian province of West Papua and is a partnership between Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Universitas Papua (UNIPA) and Dinas Kehutanan West Papua. The project partners are building a georeferenced specimen dataset of the endemic species of West Papua to help predict species occurrence in different habitat types. Future fieldwork will test how well the models predict species occurrences and richness.
A list of the threatened and range-restricted plant species is currently being refined by the project partners. Kew and collaborators have recently assessed and published 226 New Guinea orchid and tree fern species on the IUCN Red List: 27 species (11.5%) are threatened with extinction and 44 species (18%) were listed as Data Deficient. Future assessments are focused on the endemic woody plants of West Papua.
Trees of New Guinea
Cámara-Leret, R., Frodin, D.G., Adema, F. et al. New Guinea has the world’s richest island flora. Nature 584, 579–583 (2020).
Hydriastele Gibbisiana in West Papua Province
Dendrobuim latipetalum in West Papua Province
Did you know that more than 90% of fungi are unknown to science?
Throughout February, Plantlife is participating in Reverse the Red’s Fungi month – a chance to better understand the mysterious worlds of some of our rarest fungi species.
Reverse the Red is a global movement aimed at raising awareness of the work being done by organisations and communities to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss, ensuring the survival of wild species and ecosystems.
The initiative brings together scientists, advocates, and partners who use data and science-based conservation approaches, with the goal of reducing our rarest species vulnerability, and eventually removing them from the Red list.
Red lists are a globally recognised way of listing and identifying the threat of extinction to species. Species are assessed objectively based on ongoing scientific information and research.
The world’s most comprehensive list is the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There are other more local red lists, such as the Great British Red List.
Fungi are a crucial partner to nearly all life on Earth, with an estimated 2.5 million species of fungi found around the world. But more than 90% of fungal species are unknown to science.
This lack of data means it is hard to know if some of these important species need conservation help.
Only 0.4 % of fungi that we know about have had their global conservation status assessed for the IUCN Red List Assessment. That is only 0.02% of the fungi estimated to exist – imagine the amazing species yet to be found!
People around the world are getting outside and recording fungi to help better understand them.
Since the beginning of 2020 more than 10,200 species of fungi have been named as new to science.
This includes 6 new species of webcap uncovered in the UK – 3 in Scotland and 3 in England, such as Cortinarius heatherae, spotted alongside a river beside Heathrow airport.
Join Sarah Shuttleworth who discovers a rare fungi, and the secrets it reveals about the area it’s found in. Learn why recording fungi like this is so important.
Did you spot colourful waxcaps last autumn? It's not too late to tell us by taking part in the #WaxcapWatch, helping us to identify and protect waxcap grasslands.
Discover the pressures grassland waxcaps and their habitats face, and how you can take action to protect them for the future.
We are calling governments around the world to recognise the importance of plants and fungi biodiversity for the planet.
Discover more about what Plantlife are doing to champion wild plants and fungi globally.
In December 2022 countries, organisations, and people from around the world gathered in Montreal to see a new global agreement to protect and restore biodiversity adopted at CoP 15.
Plantlife along with Royal Botanic Gardens Kew were there to ensure that plants and fungi were not forgotten. From our joint exhibition stand we spoke passionately to governments, NGOs, research organisations members of Youth Groups and Indigenous communities about the value of wild plants and fungi, and the need to maintain and preserve their extraordinary diversity worldwide.
On the 9 December 2022, we held a side event on Important Plant Areas-a tool for implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework (which you can watch here: Important Plant Areas- a tool for Implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework (CoP15 side event)). Important Plant Areas are an invaluable tool for helping to tackle the ecological, climate and societal crises we are currently facing.
We know that life on earth depends on its extraordinary diversity of plants and fungi, yet two in every five wild plants are threatened with extinction.
Far too often, world’s flora and fungi are relegated to a green background for more charismatic wildlife.
Plantlife has been working with partners over the past twenty years to make sure that plant conservation is given priority within global biodiversity agreements. In 2002, this led to the United Nations CBD adopting a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which was updated 10 years later.
We helped establish the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation and coordinated the Important Plant Areas programme – an important tool for achieving Target 5 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation – to protect and manage at least 75 per cent of the most important areas for plant diversity of each ecological region.
The impact of the GSPC and the ongoing importance of specific plant conservation actions was recognised when in Decision 15/5 the Monitoring Framework for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework the CBD Secretariat:
“Invites the Global Partnership on Plant Conservation, with the support of the Secretariat and subject to the availability of resources, to prepare a set of complementary actions related to plant conservation to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and other relevant decisions adopted at the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and also based on previous experiences with the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation as described in the fifth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook1 and the 2020 Plant Conservation Report,2 for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice.”
Plantlife is now working closely with members of the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation to establish this set of complementary actions.
Plantlife is now working closely with members of the GPPC to establish this set of complementary actions.
Downland and read our Cop15 Briefing Document
IPAs are key sites for exceptional botanical richness; rare, threatened and socio-economically valuable plant species; and rare and threatened habitats. Plantlife developed the first IPA criteria in 2001.
Number of IPAs:75 Area of IPAs: 146,051 hectares
Czech Republic covers 78,864 km2
There is a total of 75 IPAs in the Czech Republic, covering 146,051 hectares, which are distributed in the different biogeographic zones: Continental 63, Pannonic 10, both 2.
The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,864 km2 in the centre of Europe, and is bordered by Austria, Germany, Poland and Slovakia. The western and central part of the Czech Republic belongs to the Bohemian Highlands, the east belongs to the west Carpathians.
There are two biogeographic zones, with most of the country covered by the continental zone, and a small part in the southeast by the Pannonian zone. The Czech Republic has an agricultural and industrial landscape that has been altered considerably by human activity since the Neolithic. Agricultural lands cover 54% of the country and forests 33%, most of which are Norway spruce and Scot’s pine plantations. The flora is relatively diverse due to environmental conditions. The best-preserved and most valuable natural areas are preserved by a dense network of protected areas.
Grassland habitats occur within the majority of IPAs and cover an area of 18,924 ha. Forest occurs within 67 IPAs and covers the largest area of all the IPA habitats with 94,610 ha. Other habitats such as heathland and scrub, inland surface water, mires, bogs and fen, inland unvegetated or sparse vegetation, cultivated habitats and constructed habitat are relatively rare. Nature conservation activities, recreation and tourism and forestry are the most significant land uses. Mowing and haymaking, animal grazing and wild plant gathering is recorded significantly less.
The IPAs on non-forest lands such as meadows, steppes and wetlands are threatened primarily by neglected cultivation or complete land abandonment, as well as an increasing level of nutrients resulting in the decline of some plant species. Forest habitats are primarily threatened by intensive, commercial forest management, except for some primeval forests in strictly protected nature reserves. A considerable area of forest is also threatened by air pollution which makes the forests less vital and more susceptible to insect-damage. A large number of IPAs are impacted by tourism.
Important Plant Areas in Central and Eastern Europe
Pages 38 – 42
Czech Republic IPA data
Number of IPAs:27 Area of IPAs: 708,606 hectares Number/Area of IPAs in Protected Areas: 11 IPAs
Montenegro covers 14,000 km2
Montenegro covers an area of almost 14,000 km² and has two biogeographic zones: Mediterranean and Alpine. Montenegro borders Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia. On a European scale Montenegro is believed to have the greatest number of vascular plants per unit area, and contains many national and Balkan endemics – Asperula, Campanula, Dianthus, Edrianathus and Ophrys are just a few of the important genera.
The natural and semi-natural habitats are characterised by forest (oak, beech and coniferous), grasslands, and the coastal habitats of the Adriatic Sea.
Montenegro has 27 IPAs, covering 708,606 hectares. IPAs in Montenegro are largely made up of habitat mosaics, other than 3 sites which are 100% marine. Broadleaved deciduous woodland occurs at the most sites (19), followed by coniferous forests (14) and mixed forests (8). Predominant grassland habitats are mesic (8), sub alpine and alpine (8) and dry (5). Forest (woodland) habitats are the most frequent with significant coverage on most of the sites where they occur. Grassland, cultivated and inland water habitats are also frequent.
16 of Montenegro’s 27 IPAs (nearly 60%) are unprotected. The other 40% have some level of official national protection on all or part of the site.
Tourism and recreation are the dominant land use at 81% of sites and thus, unsurprisingly, development threatens 78%, with over half of the sites threatened specifically by tourist development. This is a particular problem on the coast.
Forestry and mixed agriculture take place on almost half of Montenegrin IPAs and low level wild plant harvesting on one third. One third of sites are also threatened by deforestation and burning of vegetation. The mismanagement of water resources threatens five lake and coastal IPAs at an acute level. In Montenegro climate change is recognised as one of the top ten threats to IPAs.
Pages 74 – 75
Montenegro IPA data
Mountains behind Skadar Lake – Montenegro
Mountain Serpentine above Kotor Bay – Montenegro
Number of IPAs: 157Area of IPAs: 645,507 hectaresNumber/Area of IPAs in Protected Areas: 118 IPAs/ 488,036 haBiogeographic zones: Alpine (102 IPAs), Pannonic (52 IPAs)
Slovakia covers 49,000 km2
Slovakia’s natural and semi-natural habitats consist mainly of forest, from the large expanses of beech forest in the Carpathians to the Danube flood plain forest. And grasslands; from the alpine meadows of the mountains to dry calcareous grasslands, to alluvial and fen meadows. Slovakia also has a high number of endemic and limited range species.
Slovakia borders the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Ukraine and has one Centre of Plant Diversity, the Carpathians. The IPAs are distributed as follows in the different biogeographic zones: Alpine (102 IPAs) and Pannonic (52 IPAs). Forest is the most widespread and often dominant habitat. There are also many IPAs with grasslands, temperate scrub, bogs, base rich fens, running and standing water. Arable land forms a minor and in a few cases a significant habitat within 102 IPAs.
Forestry is the most widespread land use, along with hunting and nature conservation. Agricultural activity is also a major land use – grazing and animals, hay-making and mowing, mixed and arable.
Tourism and recreation occur within less than half the IPA’s, wild-plant harvesting, mineral extraction, fisheries and aquaculture are other activities that take place within some of the IPAs.
Poor forestry practices are the most widespread threat to Important Plant Areas in Slovakia, affecting 94 IPAs in total. Habitat fragmentation and isolation also affects a high number of IPAs as well as abandonment or reduction of land management. Agricultural intensification, invasive plant species, tourism and recreation development, inappropriate water management systems, mineral extraction and transport or infrastructure development all affect the IPAs.
Important Plant Areas In Central And Eastern Europe
Pages 58-62
Slovakia IPA data
Tatra Mountains – Carpathian Mountains – Slovakia
The nature and climate crises are inseparable challenges: healthy species and habitats provide essential solutions to climate change, absorbing carbon and increasing resilience. Yet many carbon-focused initiatives are blind to the importance of plant and fungi diversity or can even do more harm than good, causing damage and destruction to our most precious wildlife.
Nature-based solutions to climate change rightly focus on trees, wetlands and peatlands, but often overlook the importance of the world’s permanent grasslands. From the smallest British wildflower meadow to the great steppes, savanna and prairies, these grasslands are home to thousands of species, many of which are threatened and endangered.
Grassland ecosystems are often undervalued in climate mitigation strategies. Yet they store between 25-35% of the world’s land based – or terrestrial – carbon, 90% of it underground. While grasslands, savannahs and rangelands store less carbon per area than forests, their underground stocks are considered safer in areas of high fire or future logging risks. Grasslands with high biodiversity can sequester even more carbon and be more resilient to the effects of climate change.
In a briefing and case studies published jointly with WWF, we demonstrate how grassland protection and restoration can support a sustainable and equitable food system, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester and store carbon, provide resilience to extreme weather events, support food security and rural livelihoods, improve health and wellbeing, and boost biodiversity.
For Plantlife and its partners, this highlights the fact that wild plants and fungi are at the heart of tackling the biodiversity and climate change crises together. To promote the wider recognition of this internationally, Plantlife has worked across the world to build a growing global network of Important Plant Areas (IPAs), which contain some of the best wild plant and fungi species and habitats. You can explore the world of IPAs through our interactive story map.
We are calling on governments around the world to align their climate and nature goals in international agreements as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. With ambitious goals in place, we need local communities, leaders, and governments to identify and recognise those precious sites for wild plants and fungi, and then collaborate on their protection or restoration – for nature, climate and people.
We, together with Birdlife International, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and WWF . are urging governments, investors and business globally to acknowledge the invaluable role grassland plays in climate change, nature recovery and sustainable food production.
Grasslands, savannahs and rangelands are huge carbon stores, vital global resources forbiodiversity, food and freshwater security, and offer many ecosystem services to support climatemitigation and adaptation.
Case studies on the importance of grasslands ecosystem in the UK, Brazil, Mongolia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
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