On the mend of bryophyte conservation in Spain : preparing a proposal for the inclusion of bryophytes in national species protection catalogues

The Spanish bryoflora contains 1291 taxa, 272 of them included in the Spanish Red List under any threat category. Although bryophytes show a low rate of endemicity compared to vascular flora, Spanish administration’s responsibility for the conservation of these plants is very high, since the country has 63 exclusive or rare species on a European or world scale. However, the representation of this group of plants in the Spanish legislation on species conservation is merely anecdotal. Royal Decree 139/2011 of 4 February develops a list of wild protected species (LESRPE and CEEA, Spanish abbreviations) and includes only 10 species of bryophytes, all of them from the Directive Habitats and the Bern Convention. The legal protection of endangered species of bryophytes is needed, not only to ensure the integrity of the most sensitive bryophyte populations, but also because it will result in the overall protection of their habitats and other species that coexist with them. Their inclusion in LESRPE and CEEA will allow a periodical monitoring of the species and a better assessment of the success or failure of commonly used management measures. The criteria for the incorporation of species into national protection catalogues are rather restrictive and inclusion of species without specific studies is not easy. During the work developed for the Atlas and Red Data Book of the threatened bryophytes of Spain, valuable information was obtained in this sense, although it covered only a fraction of the total number of species on the Red List (74 species were evaluated). Based on the available information, a list of species has been drawn to elaborate a proposal that should be raised to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment, which would imply a qualitative leap in the level of protection of this neglected group of plants and a new impetus to the necessary work started at the first phase of the Bryophyte Atlas.


Introduction
The Spanish Red List of bryophytes (Brugués & González-Mancebo, 2014) includes 272 out of 1291 species living in Spain (data after Hodgetts, 2016a,b).Although they have a low rate of endemicity compared to vascular flora (Aedo & al., 2013), Spanish administration's responsibility for bryophyte conservation is very high (Table 1), since there are 8 exclusive species, 41 Iberian, Macaronesian, Mediterranean or European endemics, and 14 rare species at European or world scale in Spain (Infante & al., 2017).However, the representation of this plant group in the Spanish legislation of species conservation is merely anecdotal.
Table 1.Endemic or rare bryophytes present in Spanish territory.Species marked (*) are not included in the proposal due to insufficient information or because they are not considered as threatened.Syntrichia abranchesii (**) is considered extinct (Gallego & al., 2012) and therefore does not qualify for its inclusion in official national catalogues.The Spanish List of Wild Species in Special Protection Regime (LESRPE) and the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species (CEEA) are the legal instruments for the conservation of wild species in Spain (L. 42/2007 and R.D. 139/2011).The presence of a taxon (or population) in these catalogues entails their periodic evaluation and the prohibition of negatively affecting their situation.
LESRPE includes taxa and populations under the only category of Special Protection, worth of attention and protection due to their scientific, ecological or cultural value or threat level, as well as taxa protected by international conventions ratified by Spain.The CEEA is considered part of LESRPE and it is reserved for species whose survival is or may become unlikely.The CEEA includes the categories Endangered (E), Vulnerable (V) and Critical Situation (SC).The presence in the CEEA implies consideration as a threatened species for the purposes of the Penal Code.
At present, only 10 bryophyte species are included in LESRPE or CEEA, all of them coming from the Annexes of the Habitats Directive or the Bern Convention ( Regarding the regional catalogues, it should be noted that only 9 out of the 17 autonomous communities (regional administrations with competence in management of the territory) include bryophytes in their catalogues of protected flora.In total, the regional catalogues include 75 taxa, Catalonia and Galicia being the regions with the highest number of protected bryophytes.
Considering the national and regional catalogues as a whole, the list of bryophytes with some degree of protection in at least part of the Spanish territory amounts to 80 taxa, which exhibit a very unequal geographical distribution (Infante & al., 2017).
The inclusion of bryophytes in the national catalogues is still a pending subject that would need specific population surveys, but there is room for improvement based on the available information.Therefore, a proposal will be submitted to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment (MAPAMA), which could mean a qualitative leap in the level of protection of this neglected group of plants.

Material and Methods
The process of inclusion of a species in the LESRPE or CEEA requires the contribution of information according to an official form for scientific argument established by the MAPAMA for proposals for inclusion, exclusion or change of category of taxa in both lists of protected species (Resolution 2977 on March 6th 2017).
It is particularly detailed in the case of CEEA, as can be seen in Table 3, and somewhat less profuse in the case of LESRPE (note that CEEA is a more restrictive section within the LESRPE).For the proposal of inclusion at LESRPE only fields marked with an asterisk should be filled in.
With the information provided in the form, the species will be evaluated for inclusion in CEEA following the criteria published at the Resolution 2977 on March 6 th 2017 summarized in Table 4. Species in LESRPE fall under the only category of Special Protection and there are no published criteria.The fulfillment of the criteria for this argumentation requires specific studies to be carried out on each species, such as those implemented for the Atlas and Red Data Book of Threatened Bryophytes of Spain (ABrA, Garilleti & Albertos, 2012).Thus, the selection of the species included in this proposal is limited to those species for which adequate information is available.The criteria followed for the inclusion in the proposal are explained below: -ABrA results: the 74 species treated in ABrA have been re-evaluated following the criteria published in the Official State Bulletin (BOE, Resolution 6 of March 2017) for the incorporation of species into the LESRPE/CEEA and it is proposed to include them in the catalogues with the most appropriate category within the official frame.
-Endemic and rare species: the information available for endemic and rare species has been revised and those that are sufficiently justified by their inclusion in the red lists have been selected in the proposal (those not selected are marked in Table 1).Exceptionally, Riella mediterranea, R. echinata and R. bialata are not included so far in the red lists, but proposed to be so by Segarra-Moragues & al. (2014) and Puche & Segarra-Moragues (2013), and thus they have also been selected.
Additionally, and only for some species, the proposal advices the protection of populations in the peninsular and Balearic territory, but not the populations in the Canary Islands, when they are not threatened in this territory.
The inclusion in LESRPE or CEEA depends in fact not only on the degree of threat, but on the type of information available.Since inclusion in CEEA is much more exigent, only those species treated in ABrA have the information with the quality required for evaluating their inclusion in CEEA.Furthermore, the categories assigned to species in this proposal do not necessarily match with those in the red lists because the criteria and thresholds for the inclusion in LESRPE/CEEA are not equivalent to IUCN methods generally applied (IUCN, 2012).

Results
Most species treated in ABrA not formerly included in LESRPE/CEEA are present in the proposal.Seven species out of 74 are not included because they are not considered threatened (Anacolia menziesii considered NT) or because they are extinct (RE or EX), since the official catalogues do not include species not found at present in the Spanish territory.Natural Heritage Act (Law 42/2007) provides for a list of extinct species, which is still pending preparation.
The endemic and rare species shown in Table 1 are also included, except those with insufficient information or not threatened, which are marked in the table (*).Again, species considered extinct such as Syntrichia abranchesii cannot be included in the proposal.
The result of the assessments carried out is a list of 84 species detailed in Table 5.In summary, 47 species are proposed for inclusion in the CEEA: 29 in the Endangered category, 17 in the Vulnerable category and 1 in the Critical Situation category.The remaining 37 species are proposed for inclusion in the LESRPE out of CEEA.

Discussion
Even with the information provided by ABrA, data on the population reduction (criterium A) is rarely available due to the lack of information on the previous extent of the populations.Criterium B referred to the decline in the area of distribution has been used when loss of localities has been detected.The most widely used criterium is Acceptance of this proposal would mean that the current situation would change from the present 80 protected taxa in total in Spain, 10 of them at national level and 70 protected only at regional level, with 5 present both in national and some regional catalogues; to 150 protected taxa in total, 94 at national level and 56 protected only at regional level, with 19 species present in national and some regional catalogues.
Although the management of the LESRPE and CEEA lists falls within the competence of the central national administration, the management of the territory and the species falls on the regional governments (autonomous communities), who would be responsible for assuming the impact of this proposal.The autonomous communities are therefore involved in the process of approving proposals for the inclusion of species in the Spanish catalogues through the State Commission for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity and, more specifically, through a specialized technical body created for this purpose: the Committee on Wild Animals and Plants.
The conservation actions for protected species fall within the competence of the regional administrations.For species in the national catalogues, their responsibilities include monitoring for species in the CEEA every 3 years, the development of recovery plans for Endangered species, the designation of critical areas for conservation of Endangered species and the development of conservation plans for Vulnerable species; for species included in the LESRPE, monitoring should be undertaken every 6 years.
To show the different outlook that would arise if the proposal thrives, Figure 1 shows the distribution of the number of bryophyte species currently present in national or regional catalogues; as already mentioned, Catalonia and Galicia stand out clearly due to the number of protected species in their regional catalogues (40 and 26 species, respectively).Figure 2 shows how the distribution of bryophytes present in national or regional catalogues would look like if the proposals for inclusion in the LESRPE and CEEA were accepted.Every region would have protected bryophyte species, in a minimum number of 2 as in La Rioja, up to a maximum of 49 species as in the case of Catalonia.However, the greatest increase in protected species would occur in Andalusia and the Canary Islands, with 31 and 20 more species respectively for monitoring and protection.
Figure 1.Number of bryophyte species currently present in national or regional catalogues with populations in the different regions (autonomous communities).Note that the figures show the sum of species present in each regional catalogue, plus the number of species nationally protected (present in LESRPE/CEEA) living in the territory.

Conclusions
The legal protection of threatened bryophyte species is a necessity, not only to guarantee the integrity of the most sensitive bryophyte populations, but also because it will result in the global protection of their habitats and other species that coexist with them.
It should be noted that this proposal is not conceived as definitive in the protection of bryophytes in Spain, but as the only step that can be taken at this time.The list, as already mentioned, stems from the small number of species for which sufficient information is available; however, a large number of species still require specific studies to obtain the necessary information to evaluate their needs of legal protection.
While seeking to improve the protection currently afforded to bryophytes, it should be emphasised that plant conservation in Spain strongly needs initiatives such as ABrA.This project has proven to be an extraordinary source of information and it needs to be encouraged to continue to completely cover the Spanish red list.show the sum of species present in each regional catalogue, plus the number of species nationally protected (present in LESRPE/CEEA after the proposal) living in the territory.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Number of bryophyte species present in national or regional catalogues, distributed by autonomous communities, should the proposal for incorporation into LESRPE and CEEA be accepted.Note that the figuresshow the sum of species present in each regional catalogue, plus the number of species nationally protected (present in LESRPE/CEEA after the proposal) living in the territory.

Table 3 .
Content of the official form for scientific argument established by the MAPAMA for proposals for inclusion, exclusion or change of category of taxa in the Spanish List of Wild Species in Special Protection Regime (LESRPE) and the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species (CEEA).Published at Resolution 2977 on March 6 th 2017.

Table 4 .
Criteria for the assignment of categories SC, E and V in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species (CEEA).Published at Resolution 2977 on March 6 th 2017.Insufficient information available but scientific consensus exists D (expert criterium), well grounded on the detailed information provided by ABrA.Despite being considered of exceptional use by the normative, we believe that the arguments are solid and that the scientific consensus circumstance fully applies.Examples of use of this expert criterium are evident cases such as endemics with few populations despite specific searches (Exsertotheca baetica, Orthotrichum casasianum, O. handiense, Telaranea azorica among others) or species with a combination of rarity, small and fragmented populations and clear exposition to threats (e.g.Brachythecium turgidum, Mannia fragans or Sphagnum fuscum).Criterium C based on the analysis of population viability is obviously not applicable at the present state of art.

Table 5 .
(González-Mancebo & al., 2013)014) for inclusion in the national catalogues for species protection LESRPE and CEEA.Species marked (*) are those for which only peninsular and Balearic populations are proposed to protect -not the populations in the Canary Islands, as in this territory they are not threatened-.Categories at CEEA are E (Endangered), V (Vulnerable) and SC (Critical Situation).Criteria used for assignment of categories are in brackets.IUCN categories according to Red List of Spain(Brugués & González-Mancebo, 2014), Red List of peninsular Spain and Balearic Islands(Brugués & al., 2014)and Red List of the Canary Islands(González-Mancebo & al., 2013).