The role of lichens in selecting Important Plant Areas in Italy

Abstract Aim of the Important Plant Area (IPA) program - integral part of the CBD Global Strategy for Plant Conservation - is the constitution of a network of the most important natural or semi-natural sites for wild plant and fungi conservation. Giving lower plants and fungi the same importance as vascular plants, the program provides to individual countries a considerable freedom of action in the implementation of IPAs number. Three main principles rule the site identification: Criterion A, based on species contribution; Criterion B, based on floristic richness in relation to the biogeographic zone; Criterion C, based on threatened habitats. Italian botanists from different areas of research responded to the call comprehensively, including all the groups of plants in the definition of the IPAs. Nevertheless, experts in lichens, fungi and freshwater algae found some operational difficulties, mostly due to the incomplete knowledge of species distribution, the lack of updated databases