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Countries Lichens IPAs For Criterion B, a difficulty is defining what is meant
Belarus* 2 1 by rich in a specific habitat type: the expert assessment
Bulgaria** 4 0 was valuable to provide confirmation for sites that
Croatia** 0 0 were already considered or documented to be rich and
to provide information for other sites where these data
Czech Republic* 6 0 were lacking.

Estonia* 4 1 Finally, the addition of the Criterion D makes our
Italy 72 21 approach different from those used for other groups
Macedonia** 0 0 of plants and the exclusion of occasionally collected
Montenegro** 0 0 samples reduces the number of Lichen IPAs respect to
Poland* 0 0 all the georeferenced data for each Criterion A species.
Romania* 7 7 Furthermore, some of these sites are within protected
Slovakia* 31 16 areas, where most of recent floristic studies have been
Slovenia* 0 0 carried out.
UK*** 15 -
However we consider a detailed floristic survey an
Tab. 4 - Lichen IPAs with Criterion A threatened species. essential condition for identify a site as IPA following
the ‘best sites’ approach.
* Anderson et al., 2005
** Radford & Odé, 2009 The high number of Italian Lichen important areas
*** Duckworth, 2006 mainly highlight two aspects: i) the richness of lichen
diversity and habitats in Italy, and ii) the huge potential
plants. connected with the availability of reliable and wide
The European Red List (Sérusiaux, 1989) is knowledge. The decision taken by the scientific
community to use lichens for the definition of Italian
considered obsolete and not representative of the IPAs is even more important if we consider that the
whole European lichen flora. That basically because IPA network is at the moment the only guarantee for
the List only contains macrolichens, a group that in this group of being identified, protected and properly
Italy, for example, represents approximately only the managed.
30% of the total number of lichen species. However,
it doesn’t mean that the conservation of red-listed Acknowledgments
macrolichens lacks in importance: several species,
such as Usnea longissima or Teloschistes spp., are in The “Important Plant Areas in Italy project”,
constant decline (Esseen et al., 1981; Esseen & Ericson as implementation of the IPA program, has been
1982; Tønsberg et al., 1996; Thor 1999; Scheidegger developed by the Inter-university research centre
et al. 2002; Nacimbene & Tretiach, 2009) and for “Biodiversity, Plant sociology and Landscape
presumed to be extinct in some European stands (UK Ecology” coordinated by the ‘Sapienza’ University
Biodiversity Group, 1999; Gilbert & Purvis, 2009). of Rome and promoted by the Italian Ministry for the
Anyway, an updated and more complete Red List Environment, Nature Protection Directorate.
certainly would be necessary to identify sites worthy
of attention, including habitats like gorges, ravines and References
rock habitats, typical of crustose microlichens.
Anderson S., 2002. Identifying Important Plant Areas.
Another controversial aspect is that some species, Plantlife International.
red-listed on the base of the low number of records
on the national territory, could be not endangered, but Anderson S., Kušik T. & Radford E. (Eds.), 2005. Important
only difficultly detectable or recently described taxa Plant Areas in Central and Eastern Europe. Plantlife
(e.g. Aspicilia crespiana, Buellia griseosquamulata, International.
Collema curtisporum). Very few is known about the
real status of many Italian lichen populations, and Ariño X. & Saiz-Jimenez C., 1996. Lichen deterioration
the implementation of the IPAs programme cannot of consolidants used in conservation of stone monuments.
disregard a deeper knowledge of these taxa, especially Lichenologist 28 (4): 391–394.
in an area like the Mediterranean basin, whose
great biodiversity is witnessed by the high number Arnold F., 1887. Lichenologische Ausflüge in Tirol. XXII.
of selected lichens (Tab. 4): 72 vs. 25 in Central and Predazzo und Paneveggio. Vehr. Zool. - bot. Ges. Wien,
Eastern Europe (Anderson et al., 2005) and 15 in
United Kingdom (Duckworth, 2006).