INVENTORY OF FLORA : In partnership with the Territorial Environmental Agency

INVENTORY OF FLORA : In partnership with the Territorial Environmental Agency

By launching the inventory program of flora and fauna in 2011, we had two goals: a better understanding of St Barth’s flora and fauna and a contribution to the biodiversity protection. The first objective is partially achieved with the upcoming completion of the inventory of the wild flora and the establishment of a reference herbarium. If prior plant collections were made over time (the Swedes were the first to collect specimens, followed by A. Questel in 1941 whose herbarium sheets are kept at the National Museum of Natural History of Paris), this is indeed the first time that a herbarium has been achieved, and stored in St Barth, in the offices of the association. As of today, the herbarium has nearly 1,000 sheets representing around 350 plant species.

Prof. Claude Sastre with one of the guards of the Environment Agency during the latest campaign of inventory in November 2013.
Prof. Claude Sastre with one of the guards of the Environment Agency during the latest campaign of inventory in November 2013.

Our second objective, to contribute to the protection of our biodiversity is also underway. In late October, we signed a partnership agreement to share the results of our flora inventory with the Territorial Environmental Agency. These results will be used to complement and support the list of protected plant species that is integrated in the local Environmental code.

Similarly, the “red lists” describing the threatened species of St Barth and soon to be realized by Professor Claude Sastre on the basis of the inventory, will be used to justify their protection.
On the island from November 7 to December 5 as part of the penultimate campaign of the flora inventory, professor Claude Sastre also contributed to the reflection undertaken by the Environmental Agency on the evaluation criteria of the dangers that plant species are facing. Following these meetings, it was mentioned that the inventory could be used as a basis for a Red List of the vascular flora of St. Barth that the Environment Agency proposes to undertake.

The next visit by professor Claude Sastre should take place in early February.