Heywood, Vernon

The Mediterranean region is one of the world’s great centres of plant diversity and its benign climates have attracted successive waves of civilisations, which have largely shaped our attitudes and ethics to the present day. Despite the effects of grazing, agriculture, deforestation, pollution, urbanisation and tourism, it has developed a wide array of plant landscapes.

The rationale for this three-volume work covering nearly 250 major sites for conservation of plant diversity worldwide is concern about rapid global loss and degradation of natural ecosystems. By highlighting areas of prime botanical importance, it is hoped that their conservation will be ensured by an adequate commitment of resources. Selection of the sites is based both on floristic statistics and on detailed first-hand knowledge of numerous botanists.