Conservation opportunities for rare and endemic tropical mistletoes

Abstract

Conservation of parasites is not as appealing as in the case of free-living organisms. Although this is worst for animal parasites, parasitic plants — and mistletoes in particular — are considered a menace to trees and shrubs, and as so, there is a prevailing sentiment that they should be eradicated rather than protected. To deconstruct this perception, we answered three important questions: Why, what, and how to protect mistletoes? Then, based on those questions, we propose a conservation plan, especially designed for tropical species. For the Why question, we briefly reviewed the functional roles of mistletoes worldwide and provided evidence of their positive impact on other species and ecosystem functioning. For the What question, we used a framework to identify the main threats to mistletoes and commented on each one of them using world examples. Then, we used the Geocat tool to map and calculate the Extent of Occurrence (EOO) and Area of Occupancy (AOO) for each endemic and rare Brazilian mistletoe species, as an example to aid in tropical mistletoe conservation. Finally, for the How question, we listed practical recommendations to create a plan for conserving endemic and rare tropical mistletoes.