Affiliation: | 1. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK;2. Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark;3. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM), Maputo, Mozambique School of Anthropology and Conservation, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Kent, UK;4. Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM), Maputo, Mozambique;5. Department of Biological Sciences, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique;6. Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Haywards Heath, UK |
Abstract: | Successful protected area networks must represent biodiversity across taxonomic groups. However, too often plant species are overlooked in conservation planning, and the resulting protected areas may, as a result, fail to encompass the most important sites for plant diversity. The Mozambique Tropical Important Plant Areas project sought to promote the conservation of Mozambique's flora through the identification of Important Plant Areas (IPAs). Here, we use the Weighted Endemism including Global Endangerment (WEGE) index to identify the richest areas for rare and endemic plants in Mozambique and subsequently evaluate how well represented these hotspots are within the current protected area and IPA networks. We also examine the congruence between IPA and protected areas to identify opportunities for strengthening the conservation of plants in Mozambique. We found that high WEGE scores, representing areas rich in endemic/near-endemic and threatened species, predict the presence of IPAs in Mozambique, but do not predict the presence of protected areas. We also find that there is limited overlap between IPAs and protected areas in Mozambique. We demonstrate how IPAs could be an important tool for ensuring priority sites for plant diversity are included within protected area network expansions, particularly following the adoption of the “30 by 30” target agreed within the post-2020 Convention on Biological Diversity framework, with great potential for this method to be replicated elsewhere in the global tropics. |