There are immediate barriers to the full recognition of fungi within focused conservation management actions and overall priority-setting. These include the insufficient baseline data on distribution and the lack of formal conservation assessment (i.e. red-listing). Despite various efforts over the years, very few non-lichenized species have formally endorsed assessments under national legislation, and international assessment under IUCN guidelines has also been carried out for only a handful of species. A large proportion of the British species of non-lichenized fungi have insufficient distributional information for a clear assessment of threat, due to insufficient recording activity with very large numbers of species and a shortage of expert surveyors/identifiers. These would currently be considered as Data Deficient under the formal guidelines.
Most of the species pages in this website have some indication of conservation status. For almost all non-lichenized species this is an informal analysis of existing data, which may provide a pointer towards assessment in the future but which is not intended to take the place of a formal study. All the species targetted under the Lost & Found Fungi project will have formal assessments once the data gathering phase is complete.
Links are given below to red-lists and other information relevant to the British mycota. Red-lists are a snapshot in time, and of course become outdated more or less immediately they are published. Nevertheless, they are valuable documents which are used on a regular basis in conservation decision-making.
Conservation Designations for UK Taxa | Conservation designations for UK taxa in Britain, compiled by JNCC from national legislative lists and other sources, and made available as a regularly updated spreadsheet. |
A Conservation Evaluation of British Lichens and Lichenicolous Fungi | Assessments on a national basis of almost all British lichenized fungi and many lichenicolous species, by Ray Woods & Brian Coppins (2012). Endorsed by JNCC. |
Red List of Fungi for Great Britain: Boletaceae | Assessments on a national basis by Martyn Ainsworth, Justin Smith, Lynne Boddy, Bryn Dentinger, Michael Jordan, D. Parfitt, H.J. Rogers & Stuart Skeates (2013). Endorsed by JNCC. |
Red List of Fungi for Great Britain: Bankeraceae, Cantharellaceae, Geastraceae, Hericiaceae and selected genera of Agaricaceae (Battarrea, Bovista, Lycoperdon & Tulostoma) and Fomitopsidaceae (Piptoporus) | Assessments on a national basis by Justin Smith, Laura Martínez Suz and Martyn Ainsworth (2015, revised 2016). Awaiting endorsement by JNCC. A similar exercise is described on the website of the Fungus Conservation Trust |
A Lichen Red Data List for Wales | Assessments of lichen species in Wales, by Ray Woods on behalf of Plantlife (2010). |
Rust Fungus Red Data List and Census Catalogue for Wales | Assessments carried out by Ray Woods, Nigel Stringer, Debbie Evans and Arthur Chater (2015). |
Smut and allied fungi of Wales. A Guide, Red Data List and Census Catalogue | Assessments by Ray Woods, Arthur Chater, Paul Smith, Nigel Stringer & Debbie Evans (2018) |
Red Data List of Threatened British Fungi | Informal red list for a selection of species thought to be threatened, by Shelley Evans, Alick Henrici and Bruce Ing (2006). |
The Global Fungal Red List Initiative | Website for a project endorsed by IUCN to carry out red data assessments for fungi on a global basis. |
Applying IUCN red-listing criteria for assessing and reporting on the conservation status of fungal species | Valuable paper on the practicalities of red-listing, published in Fungal Ecology by Anders Dahlberg and Greg Mueller (2011). |
SSSI Guidelines (Fungi) | Guidelines for the designation of sites as SSSIs due to their rich non-lichenized fungal assemblages, on a habitat basis (2018) |
SSSI Guidelines (Lichens and Lichenicolous Fungi) plus Appendix | Similar scope to the chapter for non-lichenized fungi (2018) |