IUCN Red List Assessment of the Flora of the State of Palestine (West Bank): Towards a National Strategy for Plant Biodiversity Conservation

This study presents the Red List of vascular plants for the Palestinian West Bank, assessing the threat status of native vascular taxa, following the latest categories, criteria, and application guidelines of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Vascular plants introduced after 1900 (neophytes) are excluded from this assessment. The analysis is based on records up to December 2024, sourced from the biodiversity databases (BERC, BIOGIS, and GBIF databases) herbarium label, published literature, and BREC field surveys. Since the last publication of the Red Lists of Palestine – Vascular Plants more than two decades ago, significant economic, social, and cultural changes have impacted the distribution, extent, and quality of the semi-natural and other habitats supporting native vascular plants in Palestine. Concurrently, there has been an ample increase in the recording and study of Palestinian vascular plants at multiple scales, including 2 km x 2 km grid squares, specific sites, and population levels. These enhanced datasets have been fully utilized for the current Red List assessments. In total, 1,741 taxa native to the Palestinian West Bank were assessed. Of these, 482 taxa (27.69%) were categorized under IUCN Red List threat categories: Critically Endangered (CR) 94 taxa (5.40%), Endangered (EN) 170 taxa (9.76%), and Vulnerable (VU) 218 taxa (12.52%), comprising the Red-listed taxa for the Palestinian West Bank. Additionally, 401 taxa (23.03%) were classified as Near Threatened (NT), while 710 taxa (40.78%) were assessed as Least Concern (LC) and 121 taxa (6.95%) were data deficient (DD). Notably, 27 species were categorized as Extinct (EX), as they are only known from type specimens collected in the previous century. These findings underscore the urgent need for conservation measures and represent the most comprehensive Red Data List of native vascular plants for the West Bank to date, serving as a vital tool for identifying and protecting threatened flora at both national and global levels.