Review of extinction risk in African Cycads

Abstract

Over a long period of time, cycads endemic to Africa have been facing high risk of extinction. Several conservation efforts have been made to reduce the risk of losing these highly endangered species. In this study we review the current risk of extinction of all African cycads species. We calculated the percentages of each category of species found in African cycads using the IUCN (International Union of Conservation of Nature) red list of threatened species 2014 version. We compared our result with that of Donaldson (2003) on percentages of different categories of IUCN for cycads in Africa which was carried out a decade ago. We also calculated the percentage of population trend in African cycads. When comparing these results, we discovered that over one decade there was no improvement in cycads conservation despite several conservation efforts that were made during this period. The results of the population trend also showed that the majority of African cycads are experiencing population decreases. These results highlight that the risk of extinction of African cycads is still very high and much conservation effort is still required to properly tackle ecological factors pushing these endangered species to extinction.