Abstract Although the palm flora of continental Africa totals just 66 species, they are amongst the most useful plants across the continent, providing many important resources for human populations. Studies have shown that African palms will likely be negatively affected by global change, leading to increased threats to their survival. Here we conduct the first full global conservation assessment for 61 continental African palm species following IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Our study revealed that fewer than 10% of the evaluated species were assessed as Threatened. Within the Threatened category, one species was assessed as Critically Endangered, three as Endangered and two as Vulnerable. These results underline an overall low extinction risk for African palms in the immediate future, which is substantially lower than the global estimate of 21% for all plants. These results could be linked to the generally large distribution patterns of African palm species, the broad ecological amplitudes of most species and their good representation inside the African protected areas network. However, a non-negligible number of species (~15%) lack sufficient data to be properly assessed. This highlights the importance of further studies to improve our basic understanding of their distribution and threats. Our study provides a rather optimistic view of this highly important African plant resource yet, some widespread species are becoming locally rare due to over-harvesting for human use. At a local level, palm resources are generally non-sustainably exploited, which, coupled with climate change, could lead to a rapid increase in threat status over time.

中文翻译：

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一种重要植物资源的低灭绝风险：非洲大陆棕榈树（棕榈科/棕榈科）的保护评估

摘要 虽然非洲大陆的棕榈植物群总共只有 66 种，但它们是非洲大陆最有用的植物之一，为人类提供了许多重要的资源。研究表明，非洲棕榈树可能会受到全球变化的负面影响，导致其生存面临的威胁增加。在这里，我们按照 IUCN 红色名录类别和标准对 61 种非洲大陆棕榈树物种进行了首次全面的全球保护评估。我们的研究表明，只有不到 10% 的评估物种被评估为受威胁。在受威胁类别中，一个物种被评估为极危，三个物种被评估为濒危物种，两个物种被评估为易危物种。这些结果强调了在不久的将来非洲棕榈树的整体灭绝风险较低，这大大低于所有植物 21% 的全球估计值。这些结果可能与非洲棕榈树种的广泛分布模式、大多数物种的广泛生态幅度及其在非洲保护区网络内的良好代表性有关。然而，不可忽视的物种数量（~15%）缺乏足够的数据来进行适当的评估。这凸显了进一步研究的重要性，以提高我们对其分布和威胁的基本了解。我们的研究对这种非常重要的非洲植物资源提供了相当乐观的看法，但由于过度采伐供人类使用，一些分布广泛的物种在当地变得稀有。在地方层面，棕榈资源的开发通常是不可持续的，再加上气候变化，