Conserving the World’s Most
Threatened Trees
A global survey of ex situ collections
By Malin Rivers, Kirsty Shaw, Emily Beech and Meirion Jones
October 2015
Recommended citation: Rivers, M., Shaw, K., Beech, E. and Jones, M. (2015). Conserving the World’s Most
Threatened Trees: A global survey of ex situ collections. BGCI. Richmond, UK.
ISBN-10: 1-905164-61-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-905164-61-5
Published by Botanic Gardens Conservation International.
Descanso House, 199 Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3BW, UK.
Authors: Malin Rivers is Red List Manager at BGCI. Kirsty Shaw is Conservation Manager at BGCI.
Emily Beech is Conservation Assistant at BGCI. Meirion Jones is Head of Information Management at BGCI.
Printed on 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Paper.
Design: John Morgan www.seascapedesign.co.uk
Conserving the World’s Most
Threatened Trees
A global survey of ex situ collections
Conserving the World’s Most Threatened Trees A global survey of ex situ collections
2
BGCI gratefully acknowledges the support of botanical experts
from around the world, who helped provide and review
information to compile our list of the world’s most threatened
trees. Particular thanks go to members of the IUCN/SSC Global
Tree Specialist Group who kindly reviewed the list at various
stages of development. BGCI would also like to thank the
following organisations for contributing their regionally or
taxonomically focused expertise to support development of
the threatened tree list: SANBI, NatureServe, National Red List,
Centro Nacional de Conservação de Flora Brazil, the East
African Plant Red List Authority, the Centro de Ecologia
Functional, University of Coimbra, Portugal and the Namibian
Botanical Research Insitute.
We are also thankful to the many botanic gardens around the
world that contributed collection data to this survey by uploading
their collection lists to BGCI’s PlantSearch database. A full list of
contributing gardens is provided in Annex 3. We would also like
to thank the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for cross-checking our
compiled list of threatened trees with collection records held in
the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) Data Warehouse.
Finally, BGCI would like to thank the Garfield Weston Foundation
and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for their support to the
Global Trees Campaign team to undertake this survey. We hope
this survey guides and supports decision-making for future seed
collecting and conservation programmes in botanic gardens and
other conservation institutions internationally.
Finally, the authors of this report would like to thank BGCI
colleagues for their support in producing this report.
Photo Credits
Front cover: Middle left (Andreas Kay, Flickr),
Bottom right: (Frank Mbago, University of Dar es Salaam).
Back cover: Middle left (George Schatz, Missouri Botanical
Garden). Unless otherwise credited, photos are by BGCI.
BOTANIC GARDENS
CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL
(BGCI) is a membership organization
linking botanic gardens in over 100
countries in a shared commitment
to biodiversity conservation,
sustainable use and environmental education. BGCI aims to
mobilize botanic gardens and work with partners to secure
plant diversity for the well-being of people and the planet. BGCI
provides the Secretariat for the IUCN/SSC Global Tree
Specialist Group.
FAUNA & FLORA INTERNATIONAL
(FFI), founded in 1903 and the
world’s oldest international
conservation organization, acts to
conserve threatened species and
ecosystems worldwide, choosing
solutions that are sustainable, are based on sound science
and take account of human needs.
THE GLOBAL TREES CAMPAIGN
(GTC) is undertaken through a
partnership between BGCI and FFI.
Our mission is to prevent all tree
species extinctions in the wild,
ensuring their benefits for people,
wildlife and the wider environment. We do this through
provision of information, delivery of conservation action and
support of sustainable use, working with partner organizations
around the world.
BGCI Botanic Gardens Conservation International
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
FFI Fauna & Flora International
GSPC Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
GTC Global Trees Campaign
IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature
IUCN/SSC International Union for Conservation of Nature/Species
Survival Commission
EX Extinct
EW Extinct in the Wild
CR Critically Endangered
EN Endangered
VU Vulnerable
DD Data Deficient
NT Near Threatened
LC Least Concern
Acronyms
IUCN Red List categories
Acknowledgements
Conserving the World’s Most Threatened Trees A global survey of ex situ collections
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Summary
...................................................................................4
1. Introduction
...........................................................................6
1.1 Tree red listing ..............................................................6
1.2 Conservation of trees ..................................................7
1.3 Ex situ conservation of threatened trees...................9
1.4 Policy context.............................................................10
1.5 Aims and objectives...................................................10
2. Methodology
.......................................................................12
2.1 Global list of threatened trees .................................12
Scope ..........................................................................12
Conservation ratings ...................................................12
Tree definition ..............................................................12
Taxonomy ....................................................................13
2.2 Ex situ collections of threatened trees ....................14
3. Results and Analysis
..........................................................15
3.1 Global list of threatened trees ..................................15
3.2 Ex situ collections of threatened trees ....................16
4. Conclusions and Recommendations
................................19
4.1 Conclusions ................................................................19
4.2 Recommendations.....................................................19
Red listing....................................................................19
Ex situ collections ........................................................19
Integrated conservation...............................................21
4.3 Next steps...................................................................22
Future work..................................................................22
Taking action................................................................22
Useful Links
.............................................................................26
References
..............................................................................28
Annexes
...................................................................................29
Annex I Critically Endangered and Endangered
taxa with number of reported ex situ collections ...............29
Annex II Red list publications consulted ...........................80
Annex III Participating institutions.....................................82
Boxes
1. Global Trees Campaign................................................ 5
2. Global Tree Assessment ...............................................7
3. Tree values ....................................................................8
4. PlantSearch.................................................................11
5. Trees with a large number of ex situ collections............23
6. Trees that are under-represented
in ex situ collections....................................................24
7. GlobalTreeSearch – a world list of trees .....................25
Betulaceae collections at Wakehurst Place
Betula chichibuensis (CR) reported in 27 ex situ collections
Contents
Case studies
1. In situ action: Monitoring, protecting and
reinforcing threatened apples and pears in
Central Asia...................................................................9
2. Seed banking to save threatened trees ......................11
3. Conservation strategies for exceptional
tree species.................................................................13
4. Living collections of threatened trees:
an opportunity for education and research.................14
5. Improving the genetic diversity of ex situ
collections of the Vietnamese Golden Cypress
to support reintroduction programmes.......................17
6. Forest restoration for species conservation
in East Africa ...............................................................20
Conserving the World’s Most Threatened Trees A global survey of ex situ collections
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Trees are of immense economic, cultural and ecological
importance. Efforts are urgently required to prevent the loss of
tree species and the associated ecosystem services that they
support. Botanic gardens have a crucial role to play.
This report presents the results of a survey of ex situ collections
of the world’s most threatened trees undertaken by Botanic
Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) as part of our
ongoing contributions to the Global Trees Campaign (GTC).
The report provides an overview of the current status of ex situ
collections of threatened trees. Target 8 of the Global Strategy
for Plant Conservation (GSPC), of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD), calls for:
‘At least 75% of threatened plant species in ex situ collections,
preferably within the country of origin, and at least 20% available
for recovery and restoration programmes’
by 2020.
To undertake this survey, a global list of threatened trees was
compiled as a first step. Conservation assessments were
gathered from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,
regional, national and taxonomically focused red lists. This is
the first time a comprehensive global list of threatened trees has
been developed from such a wide range of sources, and
reviewed by regional and taxonomic experts.
The compiled list of threatened trees includes 9,641 taxa,
1,894 of which are Critically Endangered, 3,436 of which
are Endangered and 4,311 are Vulnerable.
The list of the world’s most threatened trees, assessed as
Critically Endangered and Endangered (referred to as CR and
EN trees), was then compared to ex situ collection records held
in BGCI’s PlantSearch database, to provide the first global
measurement of progress in ex situ conservation of the world’s
most threatened trees.
The results show that only 26% of CR and EN trees are
represented in ex situ collections (1,389 out of 5,330), falling
far short of the 75% called for in Target 8 of the GSPC and
highlighting a huge gap in current collections.
Trees reported as absent from collections should be brought
into ex situ collections as a matter of urgency. A full list of CR
and EN trees and their representation in ex situ collections is
available in Annex 1.
This report calls for a much greater global effort in tree red
listing and conservation, to identify and protect CR and EN
trees. The report enables botanic gardens, arboreta and seed
banks to plan and prioritise future collecting efforts.
Recommendations are provided for maximising conservation
value of ex situ collections and adopting an integrated approach
to conservation of threatened trees.
It is anticipated that this report will mobilize increased support
from policy makers and funders to save the world’s most
threatened trees, ensuring their unique values continue to
provide benefit to humans and the wider environment.
Summary
Gigasiphon macrosiphon (CR) reported in 7 ex situ collections
Conserving the World’s Most Threatened Trees A global survey of ex situ collections
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Eligmocarpus cynometroides (CR) reported in 1 ex situ collection
Box 1: Global Trees Campaign
The Global Trees Campaign (GTC) is a joint initiative
between Botanic Gardens Conservation International
(BGCI) and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) launched in
1999. Since its initiation, the GTC has expanded
significantly, running projects that directly support the
conservation of threatened tree species with partners in
over 25 countries, leading training programmes to build
capacity for tree conservation, and campaigning to scale
up the use of threatened trees in planting schemes and
conservation programmes.
The GTC recognises that saving forests will not necessarily
save the immense variety of tree species. Individual species
play a myriad of economic, ecological, and cultural roles
highly valued by today’s society. We depend on trees in our
everyday lives – they provide us with food, timber and
medicine. Furthermore, millions of species of plants and
animals are intrinsically linked to tree species, depending
on them for their survival. The GTC therefore adopts a
species-focused approach to drive and guide tree
conservation efforts worldwide, through four main
approaches:
1. Prioritisation of tree species of greatest conservation
concern
2. Empowering partners and practitioners to undertake
tree conservation
3. Taking direct action to secure priority tree species
4. Mobilizing other groups to act for threatened trees
The GTC provides a vehicle for guiding conservation action
for the world’s most threatened trees, for promoting the tree
conservation work of our international network of partners,
and for sharing best practice.
To find out more about the Global Trees Campaign please
visit our website www.globaltrees.org
Conserving the World’s Most Threatened Trees A global survey of ex situ collections
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This survey has been undertaken by Botanic Gardens
Conservation International (BGCI) as part of our ongoing
contributions to the Global Trees Campaign (GTC, Box 1), a joint
initiative between BGCI and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) to
prevent all tree species extinctions in the wild, ensuring their
continued benefits for humans, wildlife and the wider environment.
This report presents a comprehensive list of the world’s most
threatened trees, and their representation in ex situ collections.
It is the result of a collaborative international effort, with
contributions from tree experts and collections of botanic
gardens, arboreta and seed banks from around the world.
It is intended that this report is used by these institutions to
support collection planning of threatened trees.
In addition to the results of this ex situ survey of the world’s most
threatened trees, we also highlight case studies of Global Trees
Campaign projects to demonstrate best practice conservation
action from around the world, and recommendations for
improving the conservation value of ex situ collections.
1.1 Tree red listing
Red lists are widely used to list taxa at risk of extinction.
The process of red listing assigns a conservation assessment
category, based on parameters such as population size and
structure, distribution and rate of decline. The most
comprehensive database of conservation assessments is the
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN, 2015).
The first analysis of threatened trees was published in the book
The World List of Threatened Trees (Oldfield et al., 1998). From
this publication over 7,000 conservation assessments of trees
were added to the IUCN Red List. Since then approximately
3,000 trees have been added, taking the total to 10,082 (IUCN v.
2015.2). Of the trees on the IUCN Red List about two thirds
have been identified as threatened with extinction.
However, the IUCN Red List is by no means the only
compilation of conservation assessment data. Governments
and other organizations monitor threat status, including
national, regional, and taxonomically focused red list initiatives.
Important geographic contributions to tree red listing include
national and regional red lists from South Africa, China and
Brazil, as well as contributions from other IUCN/SSC Specialist
Groups. The National Red List website provides a centralised
hub to bring existing national red list information together, to
promote and publicise the information within them, and enable
further development, use and analysis (National Red List, 2014).
Other important contributions include taxonomically
focused red list reports for Magnoliaceae, Maples, Oaks,
Rhododendrons and Betulaceae produced by BGCI and the
IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group (see Useful links
section on page 26). Other IUCN/SSC Specialist Groups have
also contributed tree assessments, for example the Conifer
Specialist Group has assessed all of the world’s conifers
(all included in the IUCN Red List), and the Palm Specialist
Group has assessed all palms in Madagascar (Rakotoarinivo
et al., 2014).
1. Introduction
Latania loddigesii (EN) reported in 47 ex situ collections
Key threats impacting trees in the wild
Land clearance & habitat degradation
Unsustainable exploitation of species
Low genetic diversity
Slow or poor natural regeneration
Tree predators
Invasive species
Pests & diseases
Changing climate
Key ecological relationships lost
Table 1: Key threats impacting trees in the wild
Conserving the World’s Most Threatened Trees A global survey of ex situ collections
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1.2 Conservation of trees
Humans, biodiversity and healthy ecosystem functioning depend
on maintenance of plant diversity. A large number of unique
properties and values contributing to the above are offered by
individual trees (see Box 3 for more information on values and
example species). Some trees provide direct and tangible
benefits to humans, whereas others offer indirect benefits that
are harder to quantify. Some tree species offer food or livelihood
benefits that help sustain human populations. Others act as
keystone species in an ecosystem, or serve as flagships to
drive larger conservation programmes. Conservation of each
individual tree species is therefore of great importance.
A variety of conservation actions can be undertaken for
threatened trees, each approach offering different merits.
Not all approaches will be possible for all trees, and the
Tree diversity managed and monitored in natural habitats. This may include establishment of protected
areas, monitoring and patrolling of individual species or populations, sustainable harvesting from wild
populations and mechanisms to prevent illegal logging.
Tree diversity curated outside of natural habitats. Ex situ collections are held in the form of germplasm
(seed banks, cryopreservation, micropropagation) or living plants (conservation collections, reference
collections or display specimens).
Actions to improve the status of in situ populations and their habitats. Well managed ex situ collections
consisting of genetically diverse material can provide material for reintroduction, recovery and restoration
programmes.
Research into the reproductive biology, genetics and ecology of tree species informs conservation actions.
In situ
Ex situ
Reintroduction,
recovery and restoration
programmes
Research
Table 2: Conservation options for threatened trees
Box 2: Global Tree Assessment
Despite the importance of trees, many are threatened by
over-exploitation and habitat destruction, as well as by
pests, diseases, drought and their interaction with global
climate change (Table 1). In order to estimate the impact
of such threats to trees there is an urgent need to conduct
a complete assessment of the conservation status of the
world’s tree species – the Global Tree Assessment.
The Global Tree Assessment aims to provide conservation
assessments of the world’s tree species by 2020 using
the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. The
assessment will highlight the true scale of extinction faced
by trees, will identify those tree species that are at
greatest risk of extinction and will provide information that
is essential to the development of conservation plans.
To achieve this we need to first generate a complete
global list of tree species, in order to do a gap analysis
where the conservation assessment information (both
taxonomically and geographically) is missing.
The work of the Global Tree Assessment is coordinated by
the IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group (GTSG);
however, for the Global Tree Assessment to succeed, it
will need participative, open-access approaches to data
sharing and evaluation, and the development of an even
more extensive global collaborative partnership, involving
the coordinated effort of many institutions and individuals
(Newton et al., 2015).
appropriate action will be dependent on the specific tree
taxon in question. An integrated conservation approach is
recommended, involving a combination of the approaches
outlined in Table 2. Box 1 provides information on the work
of the Global Trees Campaign, an international initiative to
safeguard the world’s threatened trees from extinction.
The Global Tree Specialist Group (GTSG) has a target to ensure
there are conservation assessments for every tree species by
2020 – the Global Tree Assessment (Box 2). With an estimated
50,000-80,000 tree species worldwide (BGCI, unpublished list),
there is still considerable tree red listing to be done.
Prior to this survey there was no single list of globally
threatened trees.
Zelkova abelicea (EN) reported in 21 ex situ collections
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