Resumen de Endemic trees extinction risk assessment in Rio de Janeiro State – Brazil
has the largest number of plant species in the world (46,097) with one new species being described every two days. CNCFlora is responsible, at the national level, for the assessing the conservation status of the Brazilian flora and developing recovery plants for species threatenedwith extinction. CNCFlora is the Red List Authority for plants in Brazil and adopts the standards and procedures recommended by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).According to the List of Species of the Brazilian Flora (2015) the country has 8,200 native tree species, mainly concentrated in the Amazon and the Atlantic Rainforest, from which 4,000 are endemic of Brazil. Tudge (2005) estimates 60,000 tree species in the world and using this estimate as a basis, the number of endemic Brazilian tree species accounts for 6.6% of the world’s tree flora. Amongst the 79 families of Brazilian assessed endemic trees, Myrtaceae andFabaceae alone represent 29% of the total number of species. CNCFlora has so far, assessed 999 tree species (25%) of the total number of Brazilian endemic trees. Rio de Janeiro is the fourthsmallest state of Brazil, with an area of 43.778Km² (IBGE, 2015), but holds almost 8.000 angiosperm species, with 1.109 endemics (List of Species of the Brazilian Flora, 2015). It also has many incident threats such as soil use and transformation, exotic species invasion, tourismand fire. The construction of accommodation places such as Hotels, sports complex, roads, etc, cause habitat suppression and habitat quality loss, among many other damages towards floraspecies. The 182 endemic tree species of Rio de Janeiro state are distributed in 41 families, being the most representative ones: Myrtaceae with 51 spp. (28%), Melastomataceae with 23spp. (13%) and Fabaceae with 19 spp. (10%). The remaining 38 families add up to 49% of the total number of species. From all endemic tree species of Rio de Janeiro state assessed (182spp.), 19% (34 spp.) were categorized as “Critically endangered” (CR); 32% (59 spp.) as “Endangered”(EN); 6% (11 spp.) as “Vulnerable” (VU), 1% (1 sp.) as “Near Threatened” (NT) and 42% (77 spp.) as “Data deficient” (DD). An interesting result was that 50% of the threatenedspecies occur in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, areas of high endemism and conservation interest. Furthermore it is an area that has the constant threat of fire because thedry climate and high altitude field area associated with the high temperatures end up providing this type of threat. The scenario of tree species in the state of Rio de Janeiro is alarming. JustCalyptranthes aromatica species was categorized as Near Threatened. This demonstrates how urgent and necessary are researches in ecology population and community of these species.Futhermore it is essential the support of institutes, universities and government through strict laws to protect these species and supervision so that these species can be conserved and in the futurethey could be less threatened. Efforts to conserve tree species should not end after the red listing of them, being necessary actions planning, identification of priority areas for conservation andstrategies to halt biodiversity loss.
