# A New Red List of Endemic Vascular Plants of Iran Identifies a High Proportion of Threatened Species and Major Conservation Gaps

## TL;DR

This study assesses the threat status of Iran's endemic plants, finding most are at risk and highlighting conservation gaps.

## Contribution

The paper provides a new IUCN Red List assessment for all endemic Iranian vascular plants, identifying conservation hotspots and gaps.

## Key findings

- 77.8% of 2753 endemic Iranian vascular plants are threatened with extinction.
- Threat hotspots are concentrated in five major mountain ranges of the Iranian Plateau.
- 58% of threatened species hotspots are insufficiently covered by protected areas.

## Abstract

Classifying the threat status of species using IUCN Red List categories is a crucial step in identifying endangered species and planning for their conservation. Iran, covering major parts of a global biodiversity hotspot in Southwest Asia, is climatically and topographically a heterogeneous country with a rich flora and a high concentration of endemics. Here, IUCN Red List criteria were applied to 2753 endemic Iranian vascular plants to assess their threat status. Moreover, threat hotspots of these categories and their conservation gaps were identified. Of all endemic species occurring in Iran, 2143 species (77.8%) are threatened; among those, 889 (32.3%) are critically endangered (CR), 875 (31.8%) are endangered (EN), and 379 (13.8%) are vulnerable (VU). Furthermore, 534 species (19.4%) were classified as least concern (LC) or near threatened (NT), and 76 species (2.8%) were classified as data deficient (DD). Based on the hotspots of threatened species, Threat Conservation Gaps, that is, hotspots of threatened species insufficiently covered by protected areas, were identified and found amounting to 58 percent. Hotspots of threatened species are restricted to the same five major mountain ranges of the Iranian Plateau identified as areas of endemism in previous studies. Our results provide an important basis for identifying areas of high conservation priorities, legislative decisions, and developing intervention strategies at the national level.

Many endemic species are threatened by extinction due to anthropogenic activities, especially in global biodiversity hotspots with high number of endemics and high rate of destruction of natural habitats. IUCN Red List of threatened species is one of the most comprehensive data sources used in conservation biology to classify species based on their estimated extinction risk. In this study, IUCN Red List criteria were applied to all endemic Iranian plants, and hotspots of threatened species and their conservation gaps were identified.