Moroccan vascular plant Red Data Book : A basic tool for plant conservation

Fennane, M. & Rejdali, M.: Moroccan vascular plant Red Data Book: A basic tool for plant conservation. — Fl. Medit. 28: 339-350. 2018. — ISSN: 1120-4052 printed, 2240-4538 online. Morocco’s ecosystems, like the ones of the other southern and eastern Mediterranean countries, have been for decades undergoing very harsh anthropo-zoogenic pressure. Threats of regression or even extinction of plant (and animal) species are real and serious. Researchers and decision makers are all encouraged to work hard for the conservation of the national biodiversity. In order to achieve this goal with full knowledge, an inventory of the situation seemed essential. This is how the idea of a Red Data Book emerged. The project "Red Data Book of the vascular flora of Morocco" is currently very well advanced. A first version was published, between November 2016 and November 2018, in ten fascicles, via the website of the Tela-Botanica Association, in order to collect suggestions, comments and complements from the botanical community. The Red Data Book deals with all the existing or doubtful plant species in Morocco, whatever their status: natural, naturalized or adventitious. They are classified according to the IUCN Red List Categories (World Union for Nature), slightly amended. For Categories VU (Vulnerable), EN (Endangered) and CR (Critically Endangered) species, the following information is provided: biological type, world distribution and distribution in Morocco. The Red Data book also provides an updated national floristic inventory, with updated nomenclature and taxonomy.


Introduction
For decades, the IUCN Red List has provided a global assessment of the threat status of species and their extinction risk and has played a major role in influencing conservation strategies.Many countries have used it as a basis for the preparation of National Red Lists and Books.
The first known list of Morocco, by Sauvage (unpulished list) was distributed by IUCN in 1970s.This list of nearly 500 species, almost all national endemics, remained for a long time the one adopted by the IUCN with very slight modifications.
In 1998 was published a catalog of more than 1600 species, endemics, rare or very rare in Morocco (Fennane & Ibn Tattou 1988).This work has remained up to now the main source of information of threatened flora.
In 2015, were published more details on endemic monocotyledons (Rankou & al. 2015).As research and knowledge advance, the "official" Red List of Morocco is regularly enriched and improved by IUCN on its web page "iucnredlist.org".
The project "Red Data book of the vascular flora of Morocco", object of this article, is also the occasion to draw up an inventory of the national vascular flora at a time when the pressure and the threats on the whole of the biodiversity are more and more intense and a source of major concern.

Alarming context
It is worth noting that Morocco, with a population exceeding 35 millions (Haut Commissariat au Plan 2018), depends heavily on agriculture and livestock.Such dependence combined with the irrational management of plant communities and species, has caused several degradation problems.Over grazing in forests, Stipa tenacissima L. steppes and alpine vegetation has led to the vulnerability of many species some of which have become rare and threatened with extinction.It was reported by Ellatifi (2012) that Morocco forest domain was losing about 10.000 hectares per year.As for plant species, preliminary studies showed that over one thousand plant species are either rare or threatened of extinction (Fennane & Ibn Tattou 1998).
The green heritage is subject to strong pressure because of the various ways humans use plants for their survival and wellbeing.For centuries, it has been customary to use plants as a major source for therapy and folk medicine.It is also common to use plants for timber, industrial purposes and as fuel wood and energy as well as utensils in daily life.This wide reliance on plants threatens their sustainability and requires special care and particular attention to make the best and sustainable use of them.

Governance and planning policies and management
The over exploitation of Morocco's natural resources is exacerbated by dubious and unfortunate modes of governance and management.The main ones are: -Inappropriate modes of exploitation; -Lack of rigour and firmness in monitoring operating markets; -Difficulty in controlling and regularizing pastoral activities; -Predominance of the economic component over the ecological one; -Absence or low adoption of the ecosystem approach.

Legislation vs Protection and Conservation
Despite the many legislative efforts made during the last decades, overall, legislation for the protection and conservation of national biodiversity remains far behind the quick changing patterns of use and rate of exploitation.
The current state can be summarized as follows: -Laws in force mainly concern: water, forest estates, agricultural domains, rangelands, hunting and fishing; -A unique law on protected areas (Loi 19-07, 2010); -CITES law: national list of protected species (Loi 29-05, 2015), comprising only nine species; -Absence of regional lists of protected species; -Absence of national lists of threatened ecosystems and habitats; -Administrative and executive staff with little or no qualification in floristic competence.

Material and method
The present paper is a summary of a presentation of the finding of a research work leading to the production of a "Red data Book of the Moroccan vascular flora".
New updated data on the Moroccan flora are provided and discussed, especially on endemic, rare or endangered species.They all come from the analysis of ten fascicles prepared in the framework of this project and distributed in digital format by the Tela-Botanica association on its website "tela-botanica.org"between November 2016 and November 2018 (Fig. 1).

Red data Book of the Vascular Flora of Morocco
The main features of the projected book are the following: -All Moroccan vascular flora (indigenous + naturalized + adventitious), including species of doubtful presence covered; -Updated Nomenclature and Taxonomy; -IUCN Red List category (IUCN 2012), slightly adapted to the proposals of Fennane & Montmollin (2015); the categories are: EX (Extinct), RE (Regionally Extinct), CR (Critically Endangered), EN (Endangered), VU (Vulnerable), NT (Not Threatened), LC (Least Concern), DD (Data Deficient), NA (Not Applicable); -Biological type, World distribution and distribution in Morocco for threatened categories (VU, EN and CR); -Detailed bibliography, especially about geographical distribution.

Practical interest
The analysis of the data of the Red Book of the Moroccan vascular flora presented above, although concise, shows interesting features, that can provide guidance to researchers and decision-makers for the good of the national phytodiversity.
We give here (Tables 6, 7 and 8) those that seem most important to us, with concrete and practical proposals and recommendations for each of the three following levels: Knowledge (Table 6), Exploitation / Valorization (Table 7) and Protection / Conservation (Table 8).

Conclusion
The Red Data Book of Morocco's vascular flora provides an update of information on the vascular flora of the country in terms of inventory, taxonomy and nomenclature.From this point of view, it is a basic reference for researchers to focus and prioritize their studies.
In terms of management, protection and conservation of biodiversity, this book is a tool at the service of decision-makers for the choice of species and the target regions of programmes and practical actions.
This first version of the Red Data Book could be subject to corrections, additions and modifications.In all cases, this is a work that needs to be regularly reviewed and updated according to the progress of research on the flora, on the one hand, and the evolution of the ranges of the species on the other hand.This cannot be achieved without the support of a large number of motivated and committed researchers in the laboratory and in the field.

Table 1 .
Number of species* by IUCN Red List Category (* incl.adventitious, naturalized and hybrids).

Table 2 .
Number of species* in the main families (> 100 sp) by IUCN Red List Category (* incl.adventitious, naturalized et hybrids).

Table 3 .
Biological types / IUCN Red List Categories.

Table 4 .
Number of endemics / IUCN Red List Categories.

Table 3 )
The main observations are: 55.7% of therophytes are in the LC category; 35.8% of chamaephytes are threatened (VU, EN, CR); 19.5% of the hydrophytes are insufficiently known (DD).

Table 6 .
Observations and recommendations concerning Knowledge.

Table 8 .
Observations and recommendations concerning Protection / Conservation.