Brink of extinction: red list of epiphytes of Colombia

Abstract

Abstract The IUCN Red List assessments of Colombian flora significantly impact national public policy by informing conservation strategies and prioritizing areas for conservation. However, little is known about the distribution, conservation status, or evolutionary history of most Colombian epiphytes, which prevents the development of strategies aimed at their protection. In this article, we present the results of national assessments of extinction risk for 290 species of vascular epiphyte species from Colombia, including 81 country endemics, using geographic occurrences obtained from GBIF, herbarium specimens, and expert observations and implementing an analysis of habitat quantity and quality. We identify the most common threats facing these taxa and highlight the most at-risk taxa, to identify conservation priorities for epiphytic plants in this megadiverse country. We show that focusing on specific taxonomic groups at the national level is a practical approach for accelerating the assessment process. We suggest continuing working collectively, implementing workshops to share the complete route for an individual or multispecies assessment, and sharing experiences of efforts in several countries since, with a standardized methodology and published evaluations in national and global repositories, we can continue working for the conservation of biodiversity of mega-diverse countries, which its protection is critical to maintaining global biodiversity.