The Red List of South African Plants is a system used to classify endemic species of plants in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

that are at risk of extinction. The

South African National Biodiversity Institute The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) is an organisation tasked with research and dissemination of information on biodiversity, and legally mandated to contribute to the management of the country's biodiversity resources. ...

(SANBI) designates the

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation ...

of endemic species according to the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

system of categories and criteria.

History

Prior to publication of the Red List of South African Plants in 2010 was the ''Threatened Plants of Southern Africa'' in 1980 where 1893 taxa was assessed, the ''Red Data List of Southern African Plants'' in 1997 where 3916 taxa was assessed, and the ''Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report'' in 2002 where 948 taxa was assessed. In 2010, as part of SANBI's Threatened Species Programme, 20 456 indigenous plant taxa was assessed and each given a conservation status. This was the first time a megadiverse country had fully assessed the status of its entire flora; 13 265 of the assessed flora was endemic to South Africa.

Categories

Plants are assessed against the IUCN Red List system of categories and criteria.

IUCN categories

;Extinct EX :For species when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died. ;Extinct in the Wild EW :For species known only to survive in cultivation. ;Regionally Extinct RE :For species known to be extinct in an assessed region. ;Critically Endangered CR :For when evidence of a species meets one of the five criteria in the IUCN Red List for Critically Endangered species. ;* Critically Endangered, Possibly Extinct CR PE :A special tag associated with the category Critically Endangered. ;Endangered EN :Equivalent to the IUCN category of Endangered. ;Vulnerable VU :Equivalent to the IUCN category of Vulnerable. ;Near Threatened NT :Equivalent to the IUCN category of Near Threatened. ;Least Concern LC :For species that don't meet the criteria for Rare. ;Data Deficient - Insufficient Information DDD :For when there is insufficient data to make an assessment ;Data Deficient - Taxonomically Problematic DDT :For species that are difficult to describe taxonomically, thus assessment of its range and habitat is not well-defined. ;Not Evaluated :For species that are hybrids, cultivars or naturalised exotic species.

Non-IUCN categories

;Critically Rare :For species known to occur at a single site, but is not threatened and does not qualify against the five IUCN criteria for threatened species. ;Rare :For species that meet one of the four South African criteria for rarity: ;* Restricted range -

Extent of occurrence Extent may refer to: Computing * Extent (file systems), a contiguous region of computer storage medium reserved for a file * Extent File System, a discontinued file system implementation named after the contiguous region * Extent, a chunk of st ...

(EOO) < 500 km², OR ;* Habitat specialist -

Area of occupancy Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while ''surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-dimen ...

(AOO) < 20 km², OR ;* Low densities of individuals - The species occurs as single individuals or small subpopulations (fewer than 50 mature individuals), OR ;* Small global population - The species has less than 10 000 mature individuals. ;Declining :The species' overall population is in decline but a threshold of concern has not been reached.

Statistics

A quarter of all assessed endemic species of plants are threatened with extinction or of conservation concern; in 2010, 13% of endemic plants were faced with extinction, with 11% of conservation concern.

References

External links

{{Official website, http://redlist.sanbi.org/, name=Red List of South African Plants Nature conservation in South Africa Flora of South Africa