Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) is a programme established by the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

in 2015 in collaboration with

Plantlife International Plantlife is a wild plant conservation charity. , it manages 24 nature reserves around the United Kingdom. HM King Charles III is patron of the charity. History Plantlife was founded in 1989. Its first president was Professor David Bellamy. ...

, to provide a framework to identify sites important for preserving plant diversity in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

countries. The programme is based on the Important Plant Areas (IPAs)
Darbyshire, I., Anderson, S., Asatryan, A. et al. (2017
Important Plant Areas: revised selection criteria for a global approach to plant conservation.
''Biodivers Conserv'' 26:1767–1800Plantlife. (2010)
Important Plant Areas around the World: Target 5 of the CBD Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.
Salisbury, U.K. framework set up by

. The IPA criteria were modified to take into account the high plant richness, the limited availability of data and the higher dependence on socio-economically important yet native plants for livelihoods in the tropics. The framework acknowledges the practical problems of gathering plant and

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

data in many regions of the world, and it recognises the important role of peer reviewed expert opinion in the selection process. TIPAs can be identified based on a range of organism groups within the plant and fungal kingdoms, including

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

lichens A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

liverworts Liverworts are a group of non-vascular plant, non-vascular embryophyte, land plants forming the division Marchantiophyta (). They may also be referred to as hepatics. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in wh ...

mosses Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and ho ...

, and wild

vascular plants Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified tissue ( ...

. The TIPAs programme focuses on critical sites for wild plant populations. It aims to identify areas important for the conservation of threatened plants and/or habitats and areas with exceptional plant richness, and to raise awareness of the importance of plant life in tropical countries, encouraging long term conservation of these areas. TIPA sites are selected based on three criteria: A. Presence of

threatened A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...

plant species: the site holds significant populations of one or more species that are of global or regional conservation concern. B. Presence of high botanical richness: the site has an exceptionally rich

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

in relation to a particular vegetation type, and/ or contains an exceptional number of species of conservation importance and/or an exceptional number of socially, economically or culturally valuable plant species. C. Presence of threatened habitats: the site is an outstanding example of a habitat or vegetation type of global, regional or national conservation and botanical importance. TIPAs are designed to aid national plant and

habitat conservation Habitat conservation is a management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore habitats and prevent species extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range. It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in ter ...

planning through a practical and pragmatic approach. A TIPA is not a legal designation and can be an unprotected site or a site wholly or partially within an existing

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

. TIPAs do not consider land ownership regime and can be of varying size. The first phase of the Kew TIPA programme runs from 2015-2020 and involves partnerships in seven tropical countries:

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

,Tropical Important Plant Areas Cameroon.

. Retrieved March 2020.

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

,Tropical Important Plant Areas Guinea-Conakry

. Retrieved March 2020.Couch et al. (2019) Threatened Habitats and Tropical Important Plant Areas of Guinea, West Africa. . Solopress, UK.

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

,Tropical Important Plant Areas Mozambique.

. Retrieved March 2020.Darbyshire I, Timberlake J, Osborne J. et al (2019
The endemic plants of Mozambique: diversity and conservation status
''PhytoKeys'' 136: 45-96.Balancing conservation and livelihoods in the Chimanimani Forest belt, Mozambique.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved March 2020.

Indonesian New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region ...

,Tropical Important Plant Areas Indonesian New Guinea

. Retrieved March 2020.

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

, and the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

.Tropical Important Plan Areas British Virgin Islands

. Retrieved March 2020.The BVI TIPAs National Team. (2019)
Identifying and Conserving Tropical Important Plant Areas in the British Virgin Islands
(2016-2019): Final Technical Report. (M. Dani Sanchez, C. Clubbe, & M. A. Hamilton, Eds.). Richmond, Surrey, UK: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Bolivia

The

n TIPA programme is a collaboration between the

, the Museo História Natural Noel Kempff Mercado (MHNNKM) and Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN), both in Santa Cruz. The programme was launched in 2016 with funds from the Eva-Langley Metcalf Trust, and has since received funding form the

Darwin Initiative The Darwin Initiative is a UK Government funding program that aims to assist countries with rich biodiversity but poor financial resources to meet their objectives under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on International T ...

and William Cadbury Trust to support the implementation of the TIPA sites and building sustainable livelihoods in local communities. The

Chiquitania Chiquitania ("Chiquitos" or "Gran Chiquitania") is a region of tropical savannas in the Santa Cruz Department in eastern Bolivia. Geography "Chiquitos" is the colonial name for what is now essentially five of the six provinces that make up the ...

dry forest and savanna ecoregion, located in the eastern lowlands of the department of Santa Cruz, was initially selected as the project focus due to the rapidly increasing rate of forest destruction. The partnerships involves 1) joint field expeditions, global IUCN Red List assessments of 200 Chiquitania

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

plant species; 2) building Bolivian capacity in seed banking and

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 ...

assessment and TIPA methodology; and 3) TIPA site assessments which are underway to be completed in 2020 in 20 potential sites, including the Serranía de Chiquitos, inselberg archipelago of Lomerío, San Matias AMNI and the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park.

Cameroon

The

TIPA programme builds on a partnership of nearly 30 years with the National Herbarium of Cameroon at the Institute of Research in Agronomic Development (IRAD) and the

University of Yaoundé The University of Yaoundé () was a university in Cameroon, located in Yaoundé, the country's capital. It was built with the help of France and opened in 1962 as the Federal University of Yaoundé, dropping the "Federal" in 1972 when the countr ...

. From the early 1990s onwards, numerous expeditions have been undertaken to botanically diverse areas including the Cameroon Highlands. Seven conservation checklists for plants of different areas have been produced to date (the first for Mount Cameroon in 1998) resulting in three new protected areas for plants being recognised by the

Government of Cameroon The Republic of Cameroon is a decentralized unitary state. State power In the Republic of Cameroon, the President of the Republic and the Parliament exercise 'State power' as per Article 4 of the constitution of Cameroon. Executive power ' Execut ...

. A Red Data Book of Plants, recognising 815 globally threatened plant species for Cameroon, the first such publication for a tropical African country. The Cameroon TIPA project will work to ensure the long-term survival and sustainable use of Cameroon's endemic, threatened and socio-economically important plant species through national and community engagement and support for protection.

Guinea

Guinea TIPAs launched in 2016 with funding from the Darwin Initiative. This is a collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, National Herbarium of Guinea 3 the Guinean Government and

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

Guinée Ecologie. Through this partnership, 22 Tropical Important Plant Areas have been documented and published, over 200 IUCN Red List assessments have been compiled and a Preliminary List of over 270 threatened plant species has been published, including 74 endemic species. The Government of Guinea has given their support to include the 22 TIPAs into the National Parks and Reserves network and legislation, some of which are likely to become

National Parks A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

e.g. Kounounkan Massif and the Moyen Bafing proposed National Park. The programme partners are now advising the

Government of Guinea A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a mea ...

on the formal protection and management of these sites.

Mozambique

The Mozambique TIPAs programme launched in 2017 through a collaboration between

, Mozambique's Agricultural Research Institute (IIAM) and

Eduardo Mondlane University The Eduardo Mondlane University (; UEM) is the oldest and largest university in Mozambique. The UEM is a secular public university, unaffiliated with any religion, and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, or religion. The ...

. Key outputs to date include a published list of Mozambique's endemic plants and

assessments for over 300 of these priority plant species. Mozambique's Important Plant Area assessments are underway, including critical sites such as the

Chimanimani Mountains The Chimanimani Mountains are a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The mountains are in the southern portion of the Eastern Highlands, or Manica Highlands, a belt of highlands that extend north and south along the internatio ...

and Lowlands,

Mount Namuli Mount Namuli is the second highest mountain in Mozambique and the highest in the Province of Zambezia. It is high and was measured, surveyed and described in 1886 by Henry Edward O'Neill, the British consul in Mozambique. The Namuli massif co ...

and the Ribaue Massif.

Indonesian New Guinea

The tropical island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

has a relatively large amount of intact habitats remaining and has been designated as one of the three remaining tropical wilderness areas by

Conservation International Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Crystal City, Virginia, in Arlington County, Virginia. CI's work focuses on science, policy and partnership with businesses, governments and co ...

. The

has a long partnership with in-country partners, Universitas Papua; together they will identify TIPAs in Indonesian New Guinea with an emphasis on the Bird's Head peninsula (the Vogelkop) in West Papua Province. This project will include training in identification, Red Listing, seed banking and aims to produce a database of plant specimens from the islands and guides for identification.

The British Virgin Islands

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands (NPTVI) and the Government of the Virgin Islands Ministry of Natural Resources, Labour and Immigration joined forces in a collaborative project (2017–2019) in the

(BVI) to map and assess threatened plants, identify and map TIPAs and engage the community through workshops, interpretation panels and a field guide on the important plants of the BVI.The BVI TIPAs National Team. (2019)
Retaining nature’s little secrets - A guide to the important plants and Tropical Important Plant Areas of the British Virgin Islands.
(T. Heller, Ed.). Richmond, Surrey, UK: Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The British Virgin Islands was the first country to have its TIPAs network identified in April 2018 with a total of 18 TIPAs across 13 islands of the archipelago. Data on the BVI threatened plant species and habitats generated during the TIPAs process is helping to inform environmental policy and species management in the BVI.

References

{{reflist Nature conservation in Bolivia Nature conservation in Cameroon Nature conservation in Guinea Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew