Professional Documents
Culture Documents
European Commission
Environment Directorate-General
LIFE (The Financial Instrument for the Environment) is a programme launched by the European Commission and coordinated
by the Environment Directorate-General (LIFE Unit - E.4).
The contents of the publication LIFE and endangered plants: Conserving Europes threatened flora do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of the institutions of the European Union.
Authors: Joo Pedro Silva (Technical expert), Justin Toland, Wendy Jones, Jon Eldridge, Edward Thorpe, Maylis Campbell,
Eamon OHara (Astrale GEIE-AEIDL, Communications Team Coordinator). Managing Editor: Philip Owen, European Commission,
Environment DG, LIFE Unit BU-9, 02/1, 200 rue de la Loi, B-1049 Brussels. LIFE Focus series coordination: Simon Goss (LIFE
Communications Coordinator), Evelyne Jussiant (DG Environment Communications Coordinator). The following people also
worked on this issue: Piotr Grzesikowski, Juan Prez Lorenzo, Frank Vassen, Karin Zaunberger, Aixa Sopea, Georgia Valaoras,
Lubos Halada, Mikko Tira, Michele Lischi, Chlo Weeger, Katerina Raftopoulou. Production: Monique Braem. Graphic design:
Daniel Renders, Anita Corts (Astrale GEIE-AEIDL). Acknowledgements: Thanks to all LIFE project beneficiaries who contributed
comments, photos and other useful material for this report. Photos: Unless otherwise specified; photos are from the respective
projects. This issue of LIFE Focus is published in English with a print-run of 5,000 copies and is also available online.
Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union.
New freephone number: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11
Ecolabel Flower
Printed on recycled paper that has been awarded
the EU Ecolabel for graphic paper (http://ec.europa.eu/ecolabel/)
LIFE Focus
p.
Patrick Murphy
Plants are vital to almost every aspect of our daily lives. They provide us with food, fibres, medicines, fuel, shelter,
clothing and the air we breathe. Many animal species are also directly dependent on plants for their survival.
Plants are essential constituents of ecosystems and play a key role in the Earths system.
Europe is blessed with a high rate of diversity, but, despite their undeniable importance, plants everywhere are
under threat. Some 21% of Europes vascular plant species (flowering plants, conifers and ferns) are classified as
threatened according to the IUCN. Half of the continents 4,700 vascular plant endemics are in danger of extinction and 64 have already become extinct. In a number of European countries more than two-thirds of the existing
plant habitats types are endangered. Major land-use changes from agriculture and forestry, habitat destruction,
fragmentation and degradation, direct impacts by economic activities and invasive alien species are all rapidly
eroding our plant communities. Climate change will further aggravate these pressures.
LIFE, the financial instrument for the environment, has been a cornerstone of plant conservation efforts, especially
within the boundaries of the Natura 2000 network.
In total, from 1992-2007 some 970 projects received EU co-funding under the LIFE-Nature component of the
LIFE programme. Although only 33 of these projects directly targeted the conservation of plants listed under the
annexes of the Habitats Directive, a far greater number of projects targeted plant conservation within a broader
context for example, under habitat actions, Natura 2000 network site management plans, or more general
actions.
This brochure explores the challenges for conservation of Europes endangered plants and highlights the role of
the LIFE programme in helping to halt biodiversity loss, and to restore threatened habitats and natural systems.
From Romania to northern Finland, Frances Seine Valley to Spains Sierra Nevada mountains, the Mediterranean
to Macaronesia, LIFE has supported a range of successful projects, helping to restore habitats and protecting
endangered plants.
LIFE has also helped to promote a new concept the plant micro-reserve (PMR) first developed in the Spanish
region of Valencia, and since successfully implemented in Slovenia and the island of Crete (see pp. 17-22).
Now, LIFE+, with a budget of over 2 billion, will continue to offer robust support to the conservation of plant
species and of biodiversity in general across Europe.
Preventing the disappearance of so many species of plants is one of the major challenges that must be addressed
in order to achieve the goal of halting the loss of Europes biodiversity.
Patrick Murphy
Head of Unit Nature & Biodiversity
European Commission, DG Environment
Background to Europes
wild plants.................... 3
European wild plants:
status and threats.............. 3
European biodiversity
policy and plant
conservation..................... 5
LIFEs contribution to
EU plant conservation ..... 7
Endangered plants in
general.......................... 9
Finland: Stakeholder
participation in managing
endangered plant
populations...................... 10
Plant micro-reserves:
from concept to
implementation............... 17
Greece: Conservation
of endangered flora on
Crete............................... 20
Mediterranean flora.... 23
Cyprus: Conservation of
unique flora and
habitats........................... 24
Italy: Conserving
the critically endangered
Sicilian fir and helping to
ensure its long-term
survival........................... 27
Spain: Protecting
extraordinary biodiversity
in the Sierra Nevada....... 30
Germany: Grassland
protection in Bavaria ...... 14
Macaronesian flora..... 31
Restoration of
habitats....................... 37
Austria: Lake Constance
forget-me-not flourishes
in Bregenz once more
thanks to LIFE-Nature.... 38
Germany: Protecting and
developing the Benningen
Marsh............................. 41
Romania: Conserving
forest habitats, preventing
soil erosion and guarding
against avalanches......... 42
Czech Republic: Preserving
the beauty and biodiversity
of the Moravian Karst..... 45
Further projects
focusing on wetlands... 46
List of available LIFE
publications.................... 49
LIFE Focus
p.
tainous areas around the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The floras
of Spain, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and
Romania support the highest numbers of both endemic and endangered
plant species.
Europes flora is one of the best known
in the world and has been shaped by
human interventions for many hundreds of years. However, the accelerated pace of industrialisation in recent
decades, together with major land-use
changes, has resulted in European
plants today being considered among
the most threatened in the world.
According to the World Conservation
Union (IUCN), some 21% of Europes
vascular plant species are classified as
threatened and half of the continents
4,700 vascular plant endemics are in
danger of extinction. In a number of
European countries more than twothirds of the existing plant habitat
types are endangered.
Wild plants in Europe are under severe
threat, and significant losses of plant
species and habitat have taken place.
Although being a subject of concern,
plant conservation tends to receive
less media coverage than conservation of other threatened groups, such
as big mammals (for example, lynxes
and whales) and bird species. The
public is, however, concerned about
wild plants disappearing from the local
countryside.
Threats
The main factors that have contributed to the progressive decline of
European plant diversity are:
Habitat loss and degradation
Habitat loss is the primary cause of
species loss at local, regional and global scales. Urban development, overdrafting of groundwater, road building,
recreation, forest fires, agriculture and
tree logging all destroy and degrade
plants natural habitats. It is estimated
that habitat destruction from human
activity is the primary cause of risk
for 83% of endangered plant species.
Habitat loss is harmful not only to a
single species, but to whole communities and ecosystems. According to
the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), it has been estimated
and a vital resource (i.e., in maintaining carbon dioxide and oxygen equilibrium in the atmosphere). In addition
to the small number of crop plants
used for basic food and fibres, many
thousands of wild plants have considerable economic and cultural importance and potential, providing food,
fuel, clothing, shelter and medicine.
Thuiller
W.
Photo: LIFE
LIFE Focus
p.
species and habitats that are dependent on extensive farming, for example,
has declined in recent decades.
Two particular threats to EU biodiversity are highlighted in the Communication. First, spatial development, for
which Member States have a particular
responsibility, through improved planning, to reconcile development needs
with the conservation of biodiversity
and maintenance of ecosystem services. The second threat is the potential
impact of climate change, where rising
temperatures are already having a biological impact, including earlier timing
of spring events, and poleward and
upward shifts in ranges in plant, as well
as animal species.
The EU approach recognises that biodiversity is not evenly spread, and that
certain species are more at risk than
others. Consequently, it affords special attention to the protection of sites
of highest nature value and species
most at risk included in the Habitats
and Birds directives. However, this
approach also recognises that much
biodiversity resides outside these
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/
biodiversity/comm2006/index_en.htm
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/
LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1992L0043:
20070101:EN:PDF
http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/
l28024.htm