Developing a comprehensive strategy for fungal conservation in Europe: current status and future needs

Abstract

We review the state of fungal conservation in Europe. Despite a large public interest in fungi, they are often insufficiently considered in the conservation initiatives of most countries and not adequately heeded in international biodiversity agreements. We attribute this to the generally low profile of fungi among conservation stakeholders and decision makers together with limited efforts of mycological scientists to put mycological knowledge into a conservation context. Recent advances in mycological knowledge, taxonomy, distribution, ecology and threats now categorically enable fungi to be included within national and European conservation agendas. 33 European countries have produced fungal Red-Lists reporting the status of macrofungi and these are official in 20 countries. These lists indicate that at least 10 % of European larger fungi are threatened, mainly due to changing land use and nitrogen deposition. Fungal biodiversity may benefit from many general conservation efforts, but many specific fungus values are also overlooked. We advocate increased interaction between scientists and conservation coordinators and practitioners, greater promotion of fungi and their conservation and ecosystem service values by mycologists, the production of a European fungal Red-List and the need to integrate fungi with animals and plants in conservation issues.