Developing a threat risk register based on the IUCN threat hierarchy for five tropical Important Plant Areas in Guinea

A pilot study to develop a threat risk register for Tropical Important Plant Areas in Guinea using the IUCN threat hierarchy is outlined. Guinea lost 92% of its total original forest before the end of the 20th Century. In addition, in the Guinée Forestière region alone, a further 25% of the remaining forest has been lost between 2000 and 2018, primarily driven by agriculture. One of the obstacles to effective protected area management in Guinea is the lack of quantitative measurements of the characteristics and location of the threats. Data was collected from five areas in Guinée Forestière to create individual risk registers for mapping and monitoring threats. The results show that the biggest threat is from agriculture, followed by biological resource use and intrusions and human disturbance. The level of threat of agriculture varies between sites but is the greatest threat at Mt Béro and Southern Simandou Mountains, though results could be skewed by sampling density. Further training of conservators and ecoguards on identification and classification of threats is needed to ensure consistency of recording across areas. This is a novel technique for recording and quantifying threats to plants in protected areas in Africa as no equivalent has been found during the course of this research. This tool has potential uses, both nationally and internationally, to improve monitoring of threats to rare plants and the forest landscape and can feed into IUCN Red List species and ecosystem assessments, as well as Protected Area Management Effectiveness systems.