Best practices, errors and perspectives of half a century of plant translocation in Italy

Conservation translocations are becoming common conservation practice, so there is an increasing need of understanding the drivers of plant translocation performance through reviews of cases at global and regional levels. The establishment of the Italian Database of Plant Translocation (IDPlanT) provides the opportunity to review the techniques used in 186 plant translocation cases performed in the last fifty years in the heart of the Mediterranean Biodiversity Hotspot. In this study, we describe techniques and information available in IDPlantT and use these data to identify drivers of translocation outcomes. To this end, we tested the effect of 15 variables on survival translocated propagules at the last monitoring date, using binomial logistic Mixed Effect Models. The analysis revealed that 11 variables significantly affected survival of transplants, namely: life form, site protection, material source, number of source populations, propagation methods, propagule life stage, planting methods, habitat suitability assessment, site preparation, aftercare and costs. Plant translocations in Italy and in the Mediterranean area should consider the complexity of speciation, gene flow and plant migrations that has led to local adaptations with important implications on the choice and constitution of source material. The integration of vegetation studies for the selection of suitable planting sites can significantly increase the success of translocation efforts. Whilst post-translocation watering has a general positive effects on traslocation outcome, other aftercare techniques do not always increase transplant survival. Finally, we found that how funds are spent appears to be more important than their actual amount.