Guadeloupe is home to around 2,400 native plant species, representing 7% of the country’s flora and 20% of the Caribbean’s flora. Of these species, 196 are endemic to the Lesser Antilles and 14% are threatened, including 79 that are critically endangered. Given Guadeloupe’s regional and global responsibility for the preservation of this flora, the ARB-IG Botanical Conservatory division proposes to take action to conserve at least five species from among some twenty rare and threatened plant species that have been shortlisted, by strengthening their populations in situ.
The project is based on improving the status of populations through planting to bolster existing populations or establish new ones, or, where appropriate, through passive conservation measures (establishment and monitoring of sites hosting rare species). The project encompasses all operations necessary for the conservation of the pre-selected species: a precise assessment of the status of populations and their sites, the collection and cultivation of reproductive material, analysis of potential reinforcement sites, selection of improvement methods and sites, followed by planting, maintenance and monitoring. At the end of the project, the enhancement operations will be subject to a review to establish future strategies for the conservation of these species and to facilitate the replication of this type of operation for other species.
For this project, the Botanical Conservatory proposes to work on a broad selection of 24 pre-selected species, as this allows resources to be pooled across species, and enables action strategies to be adapted in response to the results of, on the one hand, the analysis of populations and their sites (particularly land tenure and ecological conditions) and, on the other hand, the collection and production phases. This approach ensures that populations can be improved for at least five species whilst maximising the number of species potentially covered.
Duration: 36 months
