For the first time, all native and archaeophyte taxa have been
analysed, not just those that had already been identified as rare
or scarce. This analysis has been made possible by the publication
of the
New
Atlas of the British and
Irish Flora (Preston
et al., 2002), which has allowed
comparisons to be made with the
Atlas of the British Flora
(Perring & Walters, 1962) for all taxa. This work satisfies the
commitment made in
Plant Diversity Challenge: The
UK's response to the Global Strategy for Plant
Conservation (JNCC, 2004) to assess all vascular plants in the
UK using IUCN criteria. It will also be used to inform future
priority setting in the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP)
process.
The bulk of the report is, of course, the Red List itself, but
it contains much more than this. There are sections on data
sources, the criteria used, endemics, international responsibility
and difficult groups. Throughout the project the Working Group and
others have identified individual taxa or groups of species where
further distributional data or taxonomic research are required
before proper threat assessments can be made. Many such taxa do not
appear in the new Red List but, for now, are listed in the
so-called 'Waiting List' in section 8. More generally, the Working
Group recognised that much more population data are required in
order to apply some of the IUCN criteria. Our discussions included
wider aspects of Red List interpretation and how the list might be
used (for example, when reviewing the list of taxa included in the
UK Biodiversity Action Plan).
There have been three editions of the Red Data Book for
vascular plants in Great Britain (Perring & Farrell, 1977,
1983; Wigginton, 1999). These were all based on the distributional
data provided in the first plant atlas, with additional information
from targeted surveys looking at rare and scarce taxa. The huge
quantity of new distributional information provided by the New
Atlas, meant that a thorough revision of the conservation
status of all vascular plants was appropriate. The IUCN categories
assigned in this report supersede those given in Wigginton (1999)
or in Cheffings (2004).
In this report, the terms 'Red List' and 'Red Data List' have
been used synonymously, to refer to the list of all taxa
that have been analysed according to IUCN criteria. This
includes threatened taxa as well as those that are 'Least
Concern'. This is a change in usage compared to the past,
when a taxon that was 'on the Red List' was considered to be
threatened. In this report, a taxon that is 'on the Red List'
is not necessarily threatened, but has been assigned an IUCN
category.
This report has been produced by a working group with
representation from a range of interested organisations. The
organisations represented were: Scottish Natural Heritage, the
Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Biological Records Centre
(within the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology), the Botanical
Society of the British Isles, the Countryside Council for Wales,
English Nature, the Natural History Museum, Plantlife International
and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.