Assessment of Hebei flora against the IUCN Red List Criteria in China

Some plants of Hebei Province in China are under threat from human activities,such as over-herding and over-exploitation of wild medicinal plants and industrial plants,etc.To identify the plants in danger in the province and to inspect the quality of the environment encompassing Beijing and Tianjin,a red list of the threatened flora of Hebei Province was produced by using the IUCN Red List Criteria(version 3.1)and its guidelines(version 6.2).Some 262 species were assessed and the results were as follows:(1)the threatened flora include 211 species,accounting for 7.95%of the total native vascular plants.Among them,44 are Critically Endangered,80 Endangered and 87 Vulnerable;(2)the destruction of the habitat caused by human activities and the actual or potential exploitation of the plants themselves were the main threat factors of Hebei flora;(3)most of the threatened plants are located in the western,northern and northeastern mountainous regions,namely the key regions of Hebei plant diversity;the endemic and regionally endemic species are severely threatened.Consequently,the assessment not only presented the threatened status of Hebei flora but also indicated the relatively fragile health status of the environment of Beijing and Tianjin.Thus,it is suggested that the application of the IUCN Red List Criteria at the regional level,as an index,could reflect the health status of the local ecosystem.In addition,more concrete measures are needed to conserve the plant diversity and the natural ecosystem of Hebei Province and even the whole region encompassing Beijing and Tianjin.