Evaluation system of the relative importance of vegetation syntaxa for nature conservation in Greece

Abstract

An integrated system for the ecological evaluation of vegetation maps based on syntaxa, is proposed for nature conservation purposes in Greece. On the basis of phytosociological information, several criteria such as naturalness, threat, rarity, floristic-phytocoenotic value, replaceability, are applied and the result is expressed in the form of an index. A detailed scoring system, on the basis of a scale ranging from 0 to 10 for the assessment of each of the ecological criteria, in correspondence with the syntaxa of Greece at the class level, is given. A simple formula to evaluate the Total Conservation Interest of the mapped vegetation units or complexes is proposed in order to establish protection priorities.