Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) is a programme established by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2015 in collaboration with Plantlife International, to provide a framework to identify sites important for preserving plant diversity in tropical countries. The programme is based on the Important Plant Areas (IPAs) framework set up by Plantlife International. The IPA criteria were modified to take into account the high plant richness, the limited availability of data and the higher dependence on socio-economically important yet native plants for livelihoods in the tropics. The framework acknowledges the practical problems of gathering plant and habitat data in many regions of the world, and it recognises the important role of peer reviewed expert opinion in the selection process. TIPAs can be identified based on a range of organism groups within the plant and fungal kingdoms, including algae, fungi, lichens, liverworts, mosses, and wild vascular plants. The TIPAs programme focuses on critical sites for wild plant populations. It aims to identify areas important for the conservation of threatened plants and/or habitats and areas with exceptional plant richness, and to raise awareness of the importance of plant life in tropical countries, encouraging long term conservation of these areas. TIPA sites are selected based on three criteria:
A. Presence of threatened plant species: the site holds significant populations of one or more species that are of global or regional conservation concern.
B. Presence of high botanical richness: the site has an exceptionally rich flora in relation to a particular vegetation type, and/ or contains an exceptional number of species of conservation importance and/or an exceptional number of socially, economically or culturally valuable plant species.
C. Presence of threatened habitats: the site is an outstanding example of a habitat or vegetation type of global, regional or national conservation and botanical importance.
TIPAs are designed to aid national plant and habitat conservation planning through a practical and pragmatic approach. A TIPA is not a legal designation and can be an unprotected site or a site wholly or partially within an existing protected area. TIPAs do not consider land ownership regime and can be of varying size. The first phase of the Kew TIPA programme runs from 2015-2020 and involves partnerships in seven tropical countries: Bolivia, Cameroon, Guinea, Mozambique, Indonesian New Guinea, Uganda, and the British Virgin Islands.
Bolivia
The Bolivian TIPA programme is a collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Museo História Natural Noel Kempff Mercado (MHNNKM) and Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN), both in Santa Cruz. The programme was launched in 2016 with funds from the Eva-Langley Metcalf Trust, and has since received funding form the Darwin Initiative and William Cadbury Trust to support the implementation of the TIPA sites and building sustainable livelihoods in local communities. The Chiquitania dry forest and savanna ecoregion, located in the eastern lowlands of the department of Santa Cruz, was initially selected as the project focus due to the rapidly increasing rate of forest destruction. The partnerships involves 1) joint field expeditions, global IUCN Red List assessments of 200 Chiquitania endemic plant species; 2) building Bolivian capacity in seed banking and IUCN Red List assessment and TIPA methodology; and 3) TIPA site assessments which are underway to be completed in 2020 in 20 potential sites, including the Serranía de Chiquitos, inselberg archipelago of Lomerío, San Matias AMNI and the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park.
Cameroon
The Cameroon TIPA programme builds on a partnership of nearly 30 years with the National Herbarium of Cameroon at the Institute of Research in Agronomic Development (IRAD) and the University of Yaoundé. From the early 1990s onwards, numerous expeditions have been undertaken to botanically diverse areas including the Cameroon Highlands. Seven conservation checklists for plants of different areas have been produced to date (the first for Mount Cameroon in 1998) resulting in three new protected areas for plants being recognised by the Government of Cameroon. A Red Data Book of Plants, recognising 815 globally threatened plant species for Cameroon, the first such publication for a tropical African country. The Cameroon TIPA project will work to ensure the long-term survival and sustainable use of Cameroon's endemic, threatened and socio-economically important plant species through national and community engagement and support for protection.