Habitat conservation priority: a floristic approach applied to Mediterranean wetlands

This study aims to propose some criteria and a procedure to assess the conservation importance of habitats. It deals with plant community types at the alliance level as promising units for setting conservation priorities.Our investigations highlighted: i) the higher conservation values of some alliances not listed in the HD, bringing to light various gaps in current conservation laws affecting Mediterranean wetlands; ii) that habitats widely distributed in other biogeographical areas may have a great conservation importance, underestimated in the Mediterranean region; iii) the necessity to consider regional singularities when setting conservation priorities.