Kirsty is a Head of Ecological Restoration and Tree Conservation at Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), working on the Global Trees Campaign and botanic garden led forest restoration initiatives in Africa.
At a time when conifer trees are decorated as part of Christmas celebrations around the globe, the Global Trees Campaign is busy planting 400,000 seedlings to save one of the most threatened conifer species in the world from extinction.
Mulanje Cedar (Widdringtonia whytei) is endemic to Mulanje Mountain in Malawi. In 2016, the Global Trees Campaign embarked on a project to save this species, which is on the brink of extinction in its natural habitat. Working in collaboration with Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT) and the Forestry Research Institute of Malawi (FRIM), this project, funded by the UK government’s Darwin Initiative, will restore populations of Mulanje Cedar on Mulanje Mountain.
Ten community nurseries have been established around the base of the mountain. Each nursery has raised thousands of seedlings, which are now ready to be carried up the steep slopes of Mulanje Mountain for planting.
Mulanje Mountain, Malawi
But what led to the decline of this species? Mulanje Mountain is sought-after for its valuable timber. Worth around 4000 USD per cubic metre due to its durability, strength and resistance to termites, populations have been decimated as a result of illegal harvesting.
Healthy Mulanje Cedar clusters used to adorn the base of mountain peaks. Sustainable harvesting and replanting programmes were historically led by the Forest Service of Malawi, but in recent years, illegal harvesting has accelerated and resulted in all logging of Mulanje Cedar from Mulanje Mountain being banned.
Historic healthy cluster of Mulanje Cedar (Credit: Jeffrey Juwawo)
In January of this year, the project team carried out a survey on top of Mulanje Mountain to assess the scale of destruction. Over a two week survey period only seven mature individuals were seen standing, and a small number were expected to remain in inaccessible clusters. Despite enforcement efforts, including from the national army, illegal logging has continued, stripping the last remaining mature trees from the mountain.
This species is now deemed to be Extinct in the Wild. Although seedlings were observed in some areas, the majority have been lost due to fires intentionally started in the clusters following logging.
Felled Mulanje Cedar trees at Sombani research cluster
Despite the distressing status of Mulanje Cedar, efforts are in place to improve the situation. Ten nurseries have been set up around the base of Mulanje Mountain and 150 people have been trained and supported to build nurseries and grow seedlings. 20kg of seed harvested from forestry plots of Mulanje Cedar elsewhere in Malawi, was provided to nursery groups at the start of the 2017 growing season. The best sites for planting on Mulanje Mountain have been identified by an expert working group. Pits are being dug to plant the seedlings and baskets have been woven using local materials to transport seedlings up the mountain.
And what is the result of all this hard work? Over the current planting season, which runs from mid December to mid March, 400,000 Mulanje Cedar seedlings are forecast to be planted on Mulanje Mountain.
Nhulambe Mulanje Cedar nursery group
But the hard work doesn’t stop there. The Mulanje Cedar Management Plan calls for planting to continue at this scale for the next five years. 2018 will see a second round of seeds delivered to nurseries and more people engaged in growing and planting efforts. To improve survival and growth rates for future planting years, monitoring has taken place in each nursery. Trials have also been undertaken by Bedgebury National Pinetum in the UK and further training will be given to community nursery groups.
Mulanje Cedar seedlings growing at Bedgebury Pinetum
Alongside propagation and planting, a public outreach programme is highlighting the status of Mulanje Cedar, the risks of losing this species including revenue loss from tourism, increased flash flooding and soil erosion, all of which affect the communities surrounding the mountain. Public support is being raised to protect the natural and planted seedlings, as well as engage more people in propagation and planting, to scale up restoration efforts across the mountain.
This project is creating a brighter future for Mulanje Cedar in its natural habitat and for communities surrounding Mulanje Mountain.
Young Mulanje Cedar trees planted on Mulanje Mountain
Living costs in Malawi are low, but employment opportunities are scarce. 150 nursery workers are earning an income from selling seedlings to the restoration project so far, and have used these funds to help pay for school fees, building renovations and buying animals.
With a donation of just £10 we can employ someone for a week at higher than the average national wage, to help plant seedlings on Mulanje Mountain.
Mauritius has at least 24 trees reported on the IUCN Red List to have less than 50 remaining individuals in the wild! Islands are hotspots for threatened species. They often contain endemic species with limited opportunity to become established elsewhere. Red listing and conservation action for threatened trees on islands is therefore a priority for GTC.
GTC recently ran a training course in Mauritius to build capacity for seed collection from Critically Endangered trees.
Over four days, participants from Mauritius, Rodrigues, the Seychelles and Reunion, learnt how to collect good quality seed from threatened species to establish conservation collections and prepare for species recovery programmes.
Trainers included staff from BGCI, Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation. Participants were taught what equipment they need to carry out good quality seed collections
As part of the course, the group visited Petrin, a site managed by the Mauritian National Parks and Conservation Service, where participants learnt how to assess whether a population is ready for collection.
Participants also learnt how to make herbarium vouchers to ensure correct identification of target species.
Ile aux Aigrettes Nature Reserve, an island of 26 ha just off the coast of mainland Mauritius, was a perfect place to continue training. The island lost much of its native flora and fauna due to invasive species, but the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, who manage the island, is turning the situation around.
Ile aux Aigrettes provides habitat for the best remaining population of Diospyros eggretarum, a Critically Endangered tree that was heavily harvested for timber and fuelwood. Dictyosperma album var. conjugatum, an endemic palm to Round Island off the North Coast of Mauritius, is planted on Iles aux Aigrettes to educate visitors about the threatened status of Mauritian plant species.
Participants also visited Mondrian Nature Reserve, another site managed by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation. Fencing the site to enable natural regeneration and planting of native species have been successful conservation interventions at Mondrian, which provides habitat for threatened trees including Critically Endangered Chassalia borayana. The left of the photo shows the reserve and the right of the photo is outside the reserve.
Participants received training course certificates and the opportunity to apply for GTC funding to collect seed of CR tree species – putting what they’ve learnt into practice!
GTC would like to thank the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation for hosting this training course. Look out for new tree conservation projects launched by GTC and partners in the Indian Ocean Islands soon!
To support GTC Island tree conservation projects, please give generously to this year’s Big Give campaign. All donations will be doubled until Midday Tuesday 5th December bit.do/BigGiveBGCI
Magnolia cubensis ssp. acunae (Critically Endangered) is endemic to Cuba
Pioneers
A first step in many species conservation projects is to carry out a population survey. In 2016, GTC and our partners set out in search of rare trees in Cuba, Japan and Vietnam.
Our partner Planta! went in search of the rare Tetralix nipensis in Cuba. With only six individual trees known to exist in the wild – all found in dry, thorny, thickets – this survey was no easy task. Surveying a previously unexplored area resulted in a huge boost for the species with 182 adult trees found in only two small sites! This trip not only identified the sites that need protection, it massively increased the amount of genetic material available to initiate a well-designed conservation programme for this species in 2017.
Tetralix nipensis survey site. Credit: Jose L. Gomez/Planta!
Germinating
In 2016, new seeds were sown as GTC launched new projects in Malawi, Tanzania and Saint Lucia.
In Malawi, 150 community members were employed in 10 new nurseries around the base of Mulanje Mountain to grow seedlings of Mulanje Cedar. This Critically Endangered conifer species, highly sought-after for its durable and aromatic timber, has all but disappeared from its only natural habitat on Mulanje Mountain. This project aims to restore populations on the mountain and provide a new income source for local people by creating a market for tree seedlings.
Participants of the Save Our Cedar project launch in Mulanje, June 2016
Blossoming
2016 was an important year for our ongoing projects too.
Among the fog covered slopes of the Yuanbao Mountains in north Guangxi, China, 100 seedlings of the Yuanbaoshan fir were planted in the first ever population recovery programme for this Critically Endangered tree, whose populations have greatly decreased due to logging. In December, seven months after planting, all 100 seedlings were surviving in the wild - a beacon of hope for the future of this species.
Fruits of Abies yuanbaoshanensis. Credit: Ding Tao/Guangxi Institute of Botany
Staking
In 2016, support was provided to more than 300 community members and conservationists, to help them improve their tree conservation skills and new resources were added to the GTC website.
In Nigeria, we hosted the first national training course on conservation techniques for tree species for 30 participants from government, academia, NGOs and arboreta. In a country facing rapid and indiscriminate deforestation, this course aimed to provide people with knowledge and vital skills to establish new projects to protect tree species from extinction.
IITA Forest Unit Field Supervisor, Olukunle Olasupo, demonstrated to delegates methods of seed extraction and seed cleaning from fruit of local native trees. Credit: Adam Harrower
Dispersing
2016 marked a new frontier in GTC’s engagement of young conservationists and oak specialists.
For the first time in its history, GTC offered research grants to MSc students carrying out applied research on threatened tree species, in an attempt to attract more young researchers into tree conservation. For 2017 we have increased the funding available, to be able to support double the amount of early-career conservationists.
Fifty oak experts from seven countries came together at workshop in Morelia, Mexico and the Oaks of the Americas Conservation Network was established as a result. This new network, coordinated by our partners, the Morton Arboretum, will guide and catalyse conservation action for threatened oak species throughout the region.
Members of the Oaks of the Americas Conservation Network at an international oak conservation workshop in Morelia, Mexico. March, 2016
Propagating
Working with our growing global network of partners, in 2017 we will be resuming our hunt for the Critically Endangered gergeranian pear (Pyrus gergerana) in the Caucasus mountains, collecting seed from small populations of Karomia gigas in the coastal forests of Tanzania and providing training in tree conservation techniques in Mauritius – an island home to more than 20 Critically Endangered tree species with less than 50 remaining individuals in the wild. This year we plan to support teams of young biologists to carry out threatened tree species projects, and, for the first time ever, we will publish a complete list of all of the known tree species in the world!
Seeds of Karomia gigas
Keep following our website, Twitter and Facebook for updates and inspiration, and join us for Tree Tuesday - an exciting suite of tree conservation sessions at the Sixth Global Botanic Garden Congress in Geneva, 25th June.
I don’t know the person driving, but I see the familiar logo of Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust on the car. So, ignoring all parental advice, I say….
“Sure, thanks.” And hop in.
I find out my driver, Daniel, set up the first hydropower scheme in Malawi, MEGA, a social enterprise that supplies power to villages on the slopes of Mulanje Mountain. The Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT) is a partner of the hydropower scheme. That explains the car.
I explain what brings me to Mulanje: A new Global Trees Campaign project, working with MMCT and the Forestry Research Institute of Malawi, to replant the mountain with Mulanje Cedar.
“Good luck!” says Daniel.
It’s a short journey, so we don’t have time to talk through his somewhat sceptical sounding remark, but I’m pretty sure I understand.
Mulanje Cedar seedlings
The Mulanje Cedar (Widdringtonia whytei in the Cupressaceae family) is Malawi’s national tree. It is endemic to Mulanje Mountain. The timber is highly sought-after as it is strong, termite resistant and fragrant. It is used to make beautiful carvings sold locally and to tourists visiting Malawi. Largely due to over-exploitation for its desirable timber, Mulanje Cedar is now Critically Endangered and almost lost on the mountain completely.
Logging bans have not worked. In part due to insufficient enforcement, but mainly due to the high number of people whose income is gained solely from Mulanje Cedar harvest. If people stop cutting down the trees, they cut off their family income as well.
Replanting efforts so far have largely failed, due to a poor understanding of Mulanje Cedar ecology, and even sabotage of some planting sites due to resistance to Mulanje Cedar protection measures.
Seems we’ll need more than luck to make this project a success!
Starting on a good footing
But despite all that, I’m feeling positive. The official launch for the project, held in Mulanje earlier this month, was an encouraging start.
Attendees were drawn from local communities, forestry, academia, judiciary and media, to share the plan for saving Malawi’s national tree. The project was welcomed by the Forestry Department and traditional chiefs in the area.
Participants of the project launch in Mulanje, June 2016
Cecilia Chauluka, the Zone Manager (South) for Malawi’s Forestry Department officially opened the project, ending her speech with the rallying call: “The task before us is enormous, but it can be done if we work together”.
Senior Chief Mabuka, on behalf of all the traditional chiefs present agreed stating: “We will join hands to make sure this project is a success”.
Attendees planted 30 Mulanje Cedar seedlings in front of the District Commissioner of Mulanje’s office. Women from the communities surrounding the mountain sang and danced as trees were planted, showing their enthusiasm and support for the project. These women will play a leading role in the project, setting up and running nurseries producing Mulanje Cedar seedlings, a welcome opportunity in an area where employment options for women are limited.
Women from the communities surrounding the mountain sang and danced as Mulanje Cedar seedlings were planted during the project launch
Everyone departed the launch wearing a project T-shirt, and, it felt, with a new conviction and confidence that now is the time to ‘Save Our Cedar’ and we have a good plan and partnerships in place to do it.
A steep climb ahead
Whilst our positive start set us off on a good footing, Cecilia Chauluka’s comment was no understatement.
The climb up Mulanje Mountain is steep and tough. The most gentle route up is a 3 hour hike over bare rock and loose soil. The hardest route would take you up the West face of the mountain - the longest rock climb in Africa! Though that won’t be our regular route up for the project, our commute to work is tricky, to say the least.
Mulanje Mountain
Although this is my second trip to Mulanje, this is the first time I have seen the mountain itself. On my last visit, I climbed the “gentle route”, which proved to me that the mountain was there, but it remained hidden in clouds for the duration of my trip. Not only did I not see Mulanje Mountain, I didn’t see any mature Mulanje Cedars either. Not because of the cloud, but because they’re not there anymore.
Once a carefully managed timber resource sustainably harvested and replanted by the Forestry Department of Malawi, changes in legislation and management regimes, and unsustainable harvesting by people living around the mountain, have resulted in a rapid population decline in recent years. Natural regeneration rates are low and remaining seed sources on the mountain are practically depleted. So where will we get our planting material?
Mountain rescue
Thankfully, we have some forward thinkers in our midst. The Forestry Research Institute of Malawi has been collecting seed from Mulanje Mountain, propagating and planting Mulanje Cedar on nearby Zomba Plateau for commercial use for decades. In addition, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank holds seeds of Mulanje Cedar collected from locations across Mulanje Mountain ten years ago, when populations were much healthier. This means we have a supply of good provenance planting material available that is genetically representative of the populations that once existed on Mulanje Mountain.
Mature stands of Mulanje Cedar on Zomba Plateau
The next step of the project will require the help of the Global Trees Campaign’s network of foresters and botanic gardens again. I’ll be back in Mulanje in August with staff from the UK Forestry Commission’s Bedgebury Pinetum to deliver training to nursery managers, giving them the skills they need to grow a healthy supply of seedlings in preparation for Mulanje’s restoration.
The climb may be steep, the task before us enormous. But it can be done if we work together.
Find out more about the project here and follow our progress on Twitter #SaveOurCedar
With the aim to secure some of Ethiopia’s rarest trees, botanic gardens and arboreta have begun to build the skills and momentum to reverse tree species declines in the country. GTC training and support is helping pave the way for an action plan to conserve Ethiopia’s threatened trees.
Ethiopia is a centre of diversity with high levels of endemism, plants and animals living here can be found nowhere else on Earth. However, rapid rates of deforestation have led to largely denuded landscapes, resulting in soil erosion and biodiversity loss. This was highlighted in 2005, when GTC published The Red List of Endemic Trees and Shrubs of Ethiopia and Eritrea, identifying 46 woody taxa as Critically Endangered. As threats in this region continue to rise it is likely that more tree species will face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
Leaves of Hagenia abyssinica, an extremely important tree species in Ethiopia, both economically and ecologically, and of serious conservation concern within the country.
The Ethiopian government as well as academic sectors are well aware of the risks, particularly the loss of ecosystem services provided by forests. In response the country has made a pledge to restore 15 million hectares of its forests under the ‘Bonn Challenge’ – an international target to restore 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded lands by 2020.
As well as this landscape scale strategy, Ethiopian institutions are also aware of the risks posed by the loss of individual species. To prevent this loss, they are taking measures to conserve Ethiopia’s unique and threatened species by investing in the development of botanic gardens and seed banks - hubs for plant conservation and research that will help safeguard the diverse flora of Ethiopia.
So where do we fit in?
GTC delivers training courses on tree conservation techniques, focusing on countries with a high number of threatened trees and aimed at partners with limited conservation capacity. Ethiopia is a case in point.
Since an initial scoping trip to Ethiopia in 2014, GTC has been working in collaboration with the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute to help build capacity in Ethiopian botanic gardens. As part of this programme, in December 2015 we delivered a five day training course in collaboration with the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum, UK, on establishing and maintaining conservation collections of endangered and important ecosystem trees. This practical workshop brought together 45 participants from Ethiopian botanic gardens, arboreta and similar institutions, to providie training on fundamental skills including tree seed collection, propagation, nursery management and tree planting.
Workshop participants learning how to record results of propagation trials in the nursery at Wondo Genet College
The workshop also served as a crucial networking opportunity which enabled new partnerships to be made, friendships to be forged and collaboration between institutions. These links began the formation of a national network, that will encourage institutions to share plant material, providing increased security for target species by enabling more genetic diversity to be held within collections. Such partnerships also facilitate sharing of propagation and care tips, which can be critical for species with only a few remaining individuals.
Participants worked to identify their core mission and develop a collection policy for their garden that reflected this mission. Each institution was encouraged to “adopt” a threatened tree local to their botanic garden as a flagship for their institution, to drive the conservation mission of their gardens forward and generate wider interest and support for tree conservation locally. The skills developed during the training course will now be applied to these flagships to eventually prepare for population restoration programmes.
GTC is directly working with Wondo Genet College Arboretum and Gullele Botanic Garden in Addis Ababa to help them expand their tree collections, education and conservation programmes. By providing this support, we hope these institutions will act as exemplars and provide a stimulus for other institutions to follow.
With more than 46 Critically Endangered woody taxa in need of urgent conservation action in Ethiopia, the task ahead is not small, but there is a growing momentum and enthusiasm for tree conservation within the country. Each partner says “you must come and visit my institution to see what we’re developing!” The list of newly established institutions to invite to these workshops keeps increasing. But so do the threats facing Ethiopia’s trees.
By providing our Ethiopian partners with the skills to care for, propagate and restore their endemic and endangered trees, these organisations could be the lifeline for tree species whose remaining wild populations are on the edge, ensuring the country’s rich diversity is maintained for generations to come.
The Global Trees Campaign aims to avoid all tree extinctions in the wild. An important component of conservation action must be ex situ conservation: securing a species outside of its natural range, as a back-up measure in case remaining wild populations are lost. Our new report, released today, highlights that 74% of the most threatened trees are absent from ex situ collections, lacking this vital conservation action that could save them from extinction.
These results are based on research work undertaken by BGCI. Our first step was to develop a list of threatened trees against which to measure progress. Doing this was no small task.
First, we collated Critically Endangered (CR) and Endangered (EN) assessments of known trees, for example from the IUCN Red List and BGCI tree red lists.
We also collated CR and EN assessments of plants, without recorded life form, for example from national plant red lists.
In addition, we developed a list of trees, with input from national tree lists and monographs, so relevant assessments could be extracted from the list of CR and EN plants. Our tree list also had a final manual check by the Global Tree Specialist Group and other experts.
This resulted in a list of CR and EN trees, to compare ex situ collection records against.
Alongside efforts to develop the list of threatened trees, botanic gardens, arboreta and associated seed banks were encouraged to upload their latest collection information to BGCI’s PlantSearch database: an online global portal of living plant collection lists.
So what do the results tell us?
5,330 trees with conservation assessments are as considered CR or EN globally
Our compiled list of threatened trees identified 3,000 additional assessments to those on the IUCN Red List, as a result of incorporating additional data sources. This represents the best list of threatened trees available and the best estimate to date of the number of trees known to be threatened.
Only one in four threatened trees are reported as held in ex situ collections
This means that the majority of threatened trees are not backed up and are at great risk of extinction from stochastic events even if in situ protection measures are in place, or from extraction or habitat loss if in situ protection measures are inadequate.
To download the full report, containing guidance on which species to prioritise for collection and how to ensure collections are of greatest conservation value, click here.
Neolemonniera clitandrifolia (EN) reported in 0 ex situ collections. Credit: Xander van der Burgt/RBG Kew
In addition, our work has collated a list of c. 65,000 accepted names of tree species, making it the most comprehensive global tree list developed to date.
This baseline study, and the tree lists developed,enable GTC and our partners to identify and prioritise trees in greatest need of conservation and to take action. With over 500 botanic garden members worldwide, BGCI will use the results to mobilize our partners to ensure all threatened trees within their region are protected in secure and genetically diverse conservation collections.
In 2016, our tree list, GlobalTreeSearch will be completed and geo-referenced.
By 2020, the GTSG will ensure conservation assessments have been carried out for all of the world’s tree species.
Our expanding portfolio of conservation projects and resources provides guidance on appropriate conservation action.
By providing information and training, mobilizing action and raising funds, GTC and our network of partners adopt a zero extinction strategy for the world’s trees.
Join us in our efforts!
To provide tree names for GlobalTreeSearch, please contact [email protected]
To notify us of existing tree red list assessments or red listing efforts, please contact: [email protected]
Upload your collection records to BGCI’s PlantSearch database to ensure the conservation work of your institution is counted in future assessments: www.bgci.org/plant_search.php
If you are keen to support our conservation work for threatened trees, please consider making a donation, or get in touch: [email protected]
A Global Survey of Ex situ Conifer Collections has analysed how well represented threatened conifers are in botanic garden and arboreta collections around the world and highlights priority taxa for conservation action.
A global reassessment of the conservation status of the world’s conifers was undertaken and up-to-date assessments published on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in July 2013. This showed that 34% of conifers (292 taxa) are globally threatened with extinction.
In response to this, collection lists were requested from botanic garden and arboreta worldwide to determine how well represented threatened conifers are in ex situ collections. Information provided to the BGCI PlantSearch database shows that 81% of globally threatened conifer taxa are present in over 800 ex situ collections. The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation calls for 80% of threatened taxa to be held in ex situ collections by 2020. According to data provided, this target is being met, but further analysis shows that 134 threatened conifer taxa are known in very few or no collections. These are highlighted as priorities for establishing a more effective safety net against extinction of threatened conifers.
Thuja orientalis. Endangered. Reported as held in 17 ex situ collections worldwide.
Institutions were asked to provide additional information on the threatened conifers held in collections, including provenance and number of individuals. This information reveals that the large majority of wild source collections of threatened conifers consist of only 1-5 individuals, falling far short of the amount of material needed to carry out successful recovery and restoration programmes for wild populations.
Conifers are popular for their ornamental and landscaping value and have long been selected for planting in private gardens and public parks. The report highlights a strong collection focus on cultivars, accounting for almost 50% of the records provided. This figure is likely under reported as cultivars were not the focus of the call for data. If staff and financial resources applied to maintaining cultivar and horticultural collections were redirected towards maintaining collections of threatened taxa, much greater conservation impact could be achieved.
The Global Survey of Ex situ Conifer Collections provides recommendations aimed at increasing capacity for threatened conifer conservation, improving management of ex situ collections, and enabling supply of ex situ material for recovery and restoration programmes. The report also highlights case studies of best practice to inspire further action. Case studies include the cross institution collaboration achieved through the International Conifer Conservation Programme (ICCP) and successful examples of pest and disease management for threatened conifers in the U.S.A carried out by the USDA Forest Service.
Metasequoia glyptostroboides. Endangered. Reported as held in 316 ex situ collections worldwide.
Hard copies of the Global Survey of ex situ Conifer Collections are available to purchase from the BGCI publications catalogue and the full report is available to download from the Global Trees Campaign and BGCI websites. Click here to read the full report.
As conifers are such a popular tree group, their prevalence in ex situ collections is much greater than for other tree groups. For example, the Global Survey of Ex situ Magnoliaceae Collections carried out by the Global Trees Campaign in 2008 highlighted that more than half of the Critically Endangered or Endangered Magnolia taxa were not reported in collections. Conservation action must be stepped up to safeguard the globally threatened tree species that are the focus of the Global Trees Campaign. Visit our resources section to access Red List reports, other ex situ surveys, guidance briefs and manuals to increase capacity for threatened tree conservation.
The IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group is working towards developing a Global Tree Conservation Assessment by 2020 – an up-to-date assessment of the conservation status of the world’s tree species. In this blog post we provide an update of the latest additions to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and welcome a new recruit to our team to help us work towards this ambitious aim.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Today a series of new assessments were published to the Red List, which now includes 73,686 assessed species, of which 22,103 are threatened with extinction.
This includes assessments of 9,749 trees, 6,581 of which are threatened with extinction. The threatened status of these trees is a result of multiple factors and threats, highlighting the need for a species-specific approach to conservation, as adopted and advocated by the Global Trees Campaign.
The latest update of the IUCN Red List includes the publication of the majority (146) of the Magnolia species assessed in the Global Trees Campaign publication The Red List of Magnoliaceae. This increases the total number of Magnolia species on the IUCN Red List to 176, of which 83 are threatened with extinction. Publication of these assessments to the IUCN Red List highlights the threatened status of these species to a wider audience and provides a stronger case for their conservation.
Magnolia aromatica. Assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Threatened due to over-exploitation of its timber.
The vast majority of the world’s tree species still have not been assessed using IUCN categories and criteria. The IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group (GTSG) is a global network of experts who contribute to undertaking conservation assessments of tree species. The GTSG aims to assess all species by 2020. In order to help us meet this ambitious goal, BGCI, a lead Global Trees Campaign partner, has appointed a new Red List Manager to coordinate all Red Listing activities at BGCI.
Dr. Malin Rivers has 10 years experience working in the field of plant conservation. Her PhD research, undertaken in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the University of St. Andrews, involved carrying out Red List assessments of Malagasy Delonix species, many of which have also been published to the IUCN Red List today, including Delonix pumila, an Endangered leguminous tree from Southwestern Madagascar.
Delonix pumila. Assessed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Later this year, the Global Trees Campaign will release two new Red Lists publications: The Red List of Betulaceae and The Red List of Andean Cloud Forest Trees. This will bring us further towards our target of producing up-to-date conservation assessments of all tree species.
In her new role, Malin will be busy reviewing assessments to be included in these upcoming publications. She will also support production of a Red List of Theaceae, selected fruit trees and other important tree groups, including supporting a PhD project led by Bournemouth University to Red List the world’s timber trees. Malin will also act as Secretary of the GTSG.
26th April 2014 was Union Day in Tanzania, marking the 50th anniversary of the unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania. A ceremonial tree planting took place as part of the celebrations and President Kikwete planted a young Erythrina schliebenii tree, perhaps the most threatened tree species in Tanzania.
Lake Latumba Coral Tree, Erythrina schliebenii, is an attractive tree of the ‘coral tree’ genus, with beautiful flowers and a spiny trunk and branches. This tree is assessed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and was previously thought to be extinct when the known habitat of this species was cleared.
Many of Tanzania’s best botanists have played a part in the unique rediscovery and survival story of this charismatic species, making it an excellent selection for such an important tree planting event.
E. schliebenii was first discovered and collected in the 1930s, from an area of forest on the sides of Lake Lutamba, in Lindi District in southern coastal Tanzania. The area was cleared in the 1940s for a cashew nut plantation and following unsuccessful searches for the species it was declared Extinct in The World List of Threatened Trees (Oldfield, et al., 1998).
Leonard Mwasumbi, the late Superintendent of the University of Dar es Salaam Herbarium, searched for this species for a long time without success. He encouraged his colleagues, Frank Mbago and Phil Clarke, to continue the search for this species in a wider area.
Frank Mbago rediscovered the tree in Kilwa District at Namatimbili, a tiny patch of coastal forest about 115 km north of the original collection site, on an expedition funded by Danida under Erik Prins in 2001. Phil Clarke then worked hard to locate Mbago’s specimens that had been sent to European herbaria and bring them to the attention of Barbara Mackinder, a legume specialist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, who verified the identity of the specimens as E. schliebenii in May 2011.
Immediately after the confirmation that E. schliebenii had indeed been rediscovered, WWF funded a follow up expedition in which botanists from Tanzania’s University of Dar es Salaam relocated E. schliebenii at Namatimbili and collected mature fruit and seeds. The total population observed at Namatimbili is about 12 mature individuals.
Phil Clarke, Neil Burgess, Frank Mbago, Cosmas Mligo, Barbara Mackinder and Roy Gereau ensured that the rediscovery was reported in the Journal of East African Natural History, and the Eastern African Plant Red List Authority re-assessed the conservation status of the species as Critically Endangered, as published on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2012.
The species has since been brought into a cultivation programme by Lenin Festo, Head Gardener of the Presidential State House in Dar es Salaam. He has successfully propagated five seedlings of this species, one of which was planted in the grounds of the State House by President Dr. J. M. Kikwete during Union Day celebrations.
It is hoped that the Union Day tree planting event and the President’s role in the conservation story of Erythrina schliebenii will generate further commitment and support for the conservation of this and other iconic and endangered tree species of Tanzania.
In future, Lenin Festo intends to establish further collections and cultivation programmes for additional threatened species of the East African Coastal Forest Hotspot, in the State House Gardens.
Information was contributed to this post by Roy Gereau, Assistant Curator and Tanzania Program Director, Missouri Botanical Garden.
The Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE, Scotland) has developed a novel approach to tree conservation: incorporating historic and threatened trees in a “Heritage Hedge”. The hedge includes material cultivated from the oldest Yew trees in the UK (Taxus baccata) and trees cultivated from seed collected from threatened Taxus species around the world. It will provide a valuable genetic resource for study and conservation.
The first plantings of the “Heritage Hedge” took place on April 8th 2014. The hedge extends around the perimeter of the garden and will eventually cover a length of 1km. It is estimated to take 10 years to complete.
About 20 percent of the hedge will consist of material cultivated from UK heritage Yew trees. At the heart of the project are progenies of the most ancient of all Yew Trees, the Fortingall Yew which stands in Aberfeldy, Perthshire. Estimated to be 3,000 years old, it is thought to be the oldest living tree in the UK, if not in Europe.
Martyn Dickson, Supervisor of the Aboriculture team at RBGE, with Will Hinchcliffe, Senior Horticulturalist, and Tom Christian, Horticulturalist, preparing for planting of Heritage Hedge.
The hedge also contains trees cultivated from Bruce’s Yew in Stirlingshire, thought to be a tree that gave shelter to Robert the Bruce and his soldiers, and the John Knox Yew in Renfrewshire under which it is claimed the famous reformer gave his first sermon in 1556.
The rest of the hedge will be made up of material cultivated from Yew populations worldwide where the Taxus genus is listed nationally as threatened. In total, 14 foreign countries will be represented in the hedge including the Czech Republic, Albania and Croatia. Seed collections have also come from Yew forests in Sochi, Russia as well as from Crimea.
The ‘Heritage Hedge’ initiative provides an important conservation resource for threatened and historic Yew trees and will generate public engagement and interest in conifer conservation. The initiative adds to the impressive conifer conservation work already carried out by RBGE, including the International Conifer Conservation Programme and the iCONic project.
During a recent visit to Ethiopia, Global Trees Campaign staff encountered many amazing trees and identified exciting opportunities for tree conservation efforts. With growing momentum in the country for botanic garden development, the Global Trees Campaign is working with partners in Ethiopia to develop projects to save the country’s threatened trees from extinction.
Situated in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia possesses one of the richest assemblages of plants in the African continent. It is the origin of many globally important crop species, most notably Coffea arabica (coffee). The country has a high diversity of tree species, many of which are endemic to Ethiopia, or restricted to Ethiopia and its bordering countries.
In 2005, the Global Trees Campaign published a preliminary Red List of Endemic Trees and Shrubs of Ethiopia and Eritrea. This publication estimated that there are 428 endemic and near endemic woody taxa in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and presented conservation assessments using IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria for 135 woody taxa. Of the taxa assessed, 46 were assessed as Critically Endangered.
A particularly iconic genus in Ethiopia is Acacia. Dry Acacia forests cover large parts of the country. Six species were assessed as threatened in the 2005 Red List publication, including:
Acacia bricchettiana is assessed as Critically Endangered and reported as known from only two type collections.
Acacia prasinata, also assessed as Critically Endangered. Despite occurring in a National Park, the remaining populations of this species are reported to be threatened by overgrazing and cutting for firewood.
Another iconic forest type in Ethiopia is the Hagenia and Juniper forests of the Simien and Bale Mountains. This forest type has decreased rapidly in recent years. The largest remaining section of the Hagenia and Juniper forest occurs within the Bale Mountains National Park, but even within this protected area collection for firewood persists. A number of native species of fauna occur within this forest type including Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni), listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Hagenia abyssinica and Juniperus procera
Hagenia abyssinica is native to the Afromontane regions of central and eastern Africa. Despite a fairly large range, deforestation is occurring across these regions and this species is becoming locally rare in some areas. This species is noted as being of serious conservation concern within Ethiopia in the 2005 Red List publication. H. abyssinica is used locally in Ethiopia for timber and as a source of medicine. There is a great need to increase conservation work of this important species to support wild populations and provide material for reintroduction and restoration projects in future.
Juniperus procera is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List due to a current wide distribution, however the population is reported to be declining due to continuing exploitation and deforestation. The species is noted to be at particular risk in Ethiopia and Kenya, due to depletion of old growth forest groves of this species. As the only juniper species occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa, J. procera should be an important conservation priority for countries within its range.
Nursery at Wondo Genet College Arboretum
Botanic gardens and arboreta can play vital roles in the conservation of threatened tree species. It is therefore very encouraging to see the development of new botanic gardens and arboreta in Ethiopia, with accession plans focusing on conservation of the country’s diverse native flora. For example, a recently initiated project to restore the arboretum at Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources aims to maintain a national collection of endemic and endangered tree species for conservation, research and education. The arboretum has great outreach potential as it is based at the national forestry college and has already established strong links with international partners and other botanic gardens and conservation organisations in Ethiopia.
Following a recent visit by Global Trees Campaign staff to Ethiopia, we will be working during 2014 to establish conservation projects for the threatened and iconic tree species of Ethiopia with these institutions.
This post was co-authored by Dr. Peter Borchardt, Department of Geography, University of Hamburg, Germany. Peter is involved in the arboretum restoration project at Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources.
Photo credits: Header image, Peter Borchardt. Embedded images, Kirsty Shaw.
It’s Christmas time! Which means Christmas trees, and this year there are a variety of options for an eco-friendly Christmas tree from organic trees to rent-a-tree.
Across much of the world, trees are an important part of the festive Christmas season from the conifers decorated with baubles and tinsel to the halls decked with holly! Most environmentally conscious merrymakers will be thinking about the best way to have a green Christmas. Luckily there are a multitude of options available to make sure your Christmas tree is sustainable. Most people will know that traditional Christmas trees are conifers, but did you know that over 34% of conifer species are threatened with extinction in the wild? This includes the Fraser Fir (Abies fraseri), a popular Christmas tree species whose wild population is threatened by a tree pathogen called Balsam Woolly Adelgid (Adelges piceae). Read the Fraser fir tree profile to find out more about this threatened species!
Fake or Real?
The biggest debate when it comes to eco-friendly Christmas trees is between artificial and real trees. Although some believe that artificial trees are the greenest option, it is actually the real tree that comes out on top. Artificial trees often, contain harmful chemicals such as poly vinyl chloride and even lead, are manufactured far from where they are sold so have to be shipped long distances; and biodegrade extremely slowly when disposed of, remaining in landfills for 100s of years. According to the Carbon Trust, artificial trees have an average carbon footprint 10 times larger than a real Christmas tree: that means an artificial tree would have to be re-used for 10 Christmases to keep environmental impacts lower than that of a real tree! The environmental impact of each option is affected by how far you drive to purchase your tree and the levels of harmful chemicals contained in an artificial tree or used to grow a real tree. Think carefully and take these factors into consideration to make an informed and tree friendly decision this Christmas!
Read on for more sustainable options….
Organic
Organic Christmas tree farms are perfect for those wishing for an eco-friendly Christmas; they are pesticide free and locally grown keeping environmental impacts to a minimum. Christmas tree farms are very sustainable, every tree felled is replaced with another and they can be grown on brownfield sites, as they are not an edible crop. Christmas trees are also slow growing crops with a nine year harvest cycle, meaning they create a stable habitat for other species such as insects and birds to live in.
Rent-a-tree
Did you know, in the UK alone, over 8 million Christmas trees are disposed of after the Christmas season? Following ‘a tree is for life, not just for Christmas’ approach, many companies are now giving customers the option to rent living trees. These trees are grown in pots which allow them to be rented for the Christmas season and for the rest of the year they are grown outside in special pots in the ground. When a tree reaches the end of its service it is retired and planted outdoors.
Renting a live tree has numerous benefits, it is eco-friendly as no trees are cut down and retired trees are planted outdoors where they can contribute to the absorption of carbon dioxide and release of oxygen as well as improving soil, air and water quality. Live trees keep their needles so there is no mess, there is also no hassle with disposing of the tree after Christmas as most companies offer delivery and pickup, some rentals even come pre-decorated!
Recycle
Recycling is an important part of being sustainable, if you do go for the fresh cut tree this Christmas make sure you recycle it at the end of the season. Sending a tree off to landfill is not the only option; a much easier way to recycle a tree is to use it for fuel or chip it. Most local authorities now offer collection and recycling services for free, just remember to remove the decorations first! Check your local authority website to see if they offer this service.
Donate
During Christmas we enjoy bringing trees into our homes, however we should not forget that over 8,000 tree species are threatened with extinction, including 34% of conifers.
The Global Trees Campaign supports numerous conservation projects across the globe, focussing on saving some of the world’s most threatened tree species as well as working with local communities and partners to develop the knowledge and skills needed for conservation.
A donation to Global Trees Campaign this Christmas would be a great present for any environment lover! Here is what your donation to GTC could accomplish:
£25 would plant and care for 5 threatened Paraná pine trees in the forest in Brazil
£75 would pay for a tree conservation workshop in Madagascar
£300 would provide training in tree propagation for six community members living next to Mount Cameroon National Park
