The endemic plants in Bartin, Turkey and their conservation status

Bartın province located in the Western Black Sea region of Turkey has been selected as a floristic research unit. Bartın, previously a district of Zonguldak, has earned a provincial status in 1991. Compared to other provinces of Turkey, the flora and vegetation studies in Bartın has been started quite late in detail since the second half of the 1990s.The present study aims to determine endemic taxa in Bartın province and to evaluate their conservation status on the basis of IUCN, CITES and BERN criteria. Turkey has numerous laws, regulations, and programs on biodiversity conservation, but there are many deficiencies and problems in the implementation of these guidelines. Our study was the first report on the endemic taxa and their conservation status in Bartın province of Turkey. We have determined for the first time that 35 of Turkey’s endemic taxa are also found in Bartın’s flora, and 9 of them are geophyte taxa. We state that 3 of Bartın’s endemic plant taxa are  in endangered (EN), 1 is in critical (CR), 1 is in vulnerable (VU), 6 are in near threatened (NT) and the others are in least concern (LC) categories.