New Approaches to In Situ Conservation of Plants: Priority Areas for Plants as National and Global Natural Heritage

Because of limited resources, priorities seems to be necessary in conservation of Biodiversity. It is therefore necessary to weigh the alternatives necessary to assess priorities for conservation. In conservation-based approaches, not all taxa and habitats have similar significances. Several factors following species richness, endemism, threats level of species, distribution tolerance as well rarity level were used to determine the priorities for conservation of plant taxa. Vulnerable areas with a higher number of taxa are considered as the most important priorities for conservation The Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), Important Plant Areas (IPAs), Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZEs), Biodiversity Hot spots, the most important eco regions are classified as the newest methods for plant conservation. Todays, traditional In-situ Conservation methods (e.g. traditional protected areas) faces serious challenges, so, the use of new protective practices seems to be necessary in conservation management. In this paper, weakness as well strengths of traditional and new methods of plant conservation have been compared and analyzed.