A preliminary world list of threatened conifer taxa
Conifers (the fast-growing ‘softwoods’ of the world) occur as the dominant plants of most temperate rainforest communities. Almost all are tall forest trees, whose high commercial value creates conservation vulnerability for many local species in our increasingly resource-hungry world. Counting species, of an estimated 600 world total 362 would fall into this category and consequently appear on this list. This paper provides a preliminary analytical world census list of 416 conifer taxa (species, subspecies and varieties) considered to be of conservation concern.