Abstract

MENDOZA-CIFUENTES, Humberto et al. Representativeness of vascular plants in the National Natural Parks of Colombia: how many species are housed in the system?. Biota colombiana [online]. 2018, vol.19, n.2, pp.21-34. ISSN 0124-5376.  https://doi.org/10.21068/c2018.v19n02a03.

The floristic inventory of the 59 protected natural areas that make up the Natural National Park System (PNN for its initials in Spanish) of Colombia is not complete because the number of species and floristic composition are unknown. We compiled information available in herbarium collections and in the literature, to establish a preliminary list of vascular plant species found in the PNN. We compared this list with the Catalogue of Plants and Lichens of Colombia, and obtained percentage values for the number of species with respect to the national numbers. We estimate that the flora inventory of the PNN has advanced to 70 %. So far, the known species in PNN represent 39.1% of the vascular plant species known for the country, whereas 18.2% of Colombian endemics and 56% of those species categorized in some degree of threat are found in PNN. We propose the use of these results as indices of representativeness of the Colombian flora as a complement to other indices, such as the percentage of national territory that is protected. We emphasize that the national parks associated with the Andes are the most determinant in their contribution to the improvement of the proposed indicators.

Keywords : Protected áreas; Representativeness; Species diversity; Vascular plants.

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