Summary

Europe has a global responsibility for identifying and protecting species which are unique to its territory and which are in a critical situation. Upon request from the European Topic Centre on Nature Protection and Biodiversity, and in partnership with the Council of Europe, the ‘Conservatoire Botanique National de Brest ’ (CBN) has assessed the situation of 650 European taxa falling under IUCN global categories Extinct (EX), Extinct in the Wild (EW) and Critically rare (CR), on the basis of the IUCN global Red list (1997) and a review of the most up-dated national red lists on plants as well as numerous individual contacts. Almost all the species are European endemics. For each taxon, the useful information is stored in a data base. Such an assessment will help identifying gaps in conservation plans, including ex situ programmes. It contributes to targets 1.2 of the Global and the European strategies for Plant Conservation. It will also provide a basis for the further development of a European Red List of plants, based on IUCN criteria