Win some, lose some – statutorily strictly protected indigenous plant species in the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science (University of Zagreb, Croatia)
Authors: Sanja Kovačić, Dubravka Sandev, Darko Mihelj, Vanja Stamenković
Authors and affiliation
Abstract
Early in 2013, we made a first report on ex situ conservation of threatened and statutorily protected indigenous plant species, grown in the rockeries dedicated to the plants of Croatian flora, in the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science (University of Zagreb, Croatia). We found 208 threatened, statutorily protected and strictly protected plant taxa, originating from native Croatian localities. In the meantime, we studied the Garden’s collections and Database more thoroughly and also collected new plant material in our field research. Accordingly, our native-originating collections amount to 260 taxa that are statutorily protected and strictly protected. However, due to the accession of Croatia to the European Union, part of the vital legislation changed late in 2013. This time, we report on progress in collecting and the consequences of the implementation of the new regulations on our indigenous plants collections. According to the new legislation, growing in the Botanical Garden at this moment are 109 statutorily strictly protected vascular plant species of Croatian flora (13.6 % of all), 46 taxa from the Red Book of Vascular Flora of Croatia (19.5 % of categories RE, CR, EN and VU), and seven NATURA-2000species of interest to European Union (38.9 % of all).
Keywords
statutorily protected plant species, threatened plant species, natura 2000, Zagreb Bota- nical Garden