Translocation actions for threatened plant species in Apulia region (Southern Italy).

In situ conservation is widely considered a primary conservation strategy. Plant translocation, specifically, represents an important tool for reducing the extinction risk of threatened species, acting directly on populations in their natural habitat. Over the last 20 years, the Botanical Garden Museum of the University of Bari has carried out several translocation interventions in the Apulian territory, focusing on taxa of conservation concern, i.e., policy species, Red List species, locally rare ones, endemics or, in any case, species of biogeographic importance. In order to disseminate past pilot translocation experiences so that a wider audience can benefit from both their strengths and weaknesses, as recently restated for the Italian context by Abeli et al. (IDPlanT: the Italian database of plant translocation. Plant Biosystems, 2021), these interventions are presented in this contribution, starting with the first realized in 2001 and concerning Cistus clusii Dunal at Bosco Isola di Lesina (FG), up to the latest ones carried out in 2021 at Monte Sant’Elia (Massafra - TA), in the Regional Natural Park “Terra delle Gravine”, and having, as target taxa, Arum apulum (Carano) P.C. Boyce and Salvia fruticosa Mill. subsp. thomasii (Lacaita) Brullo, Guglielmo, Pavone & Terrasi. An analysis of a total of 25 translocation actions has been carried out, evaluating several different key elements concerning target taxa, main threats affecting the local populations, sites and methodologies: e.g., the species’ biology, chorology and habitat; the translocation sites’ peculiarities; the origin and type of propagation material; the translocation type and techniques; not least, the success or failure of the interventions.