Ptychosperma gracile NT Taxonomic Authority: Labill  Global Assessment  Regional Assessment Region: Global  Endemic to region

Upper Level Taxonomy Kingdom: PLANTAE Phylum: TRACHEOPHYTA Class: LILIOPSIDA Order: ARECALES Family: PALMAE Lower Level Taxonomy Rank: Infra- rank name:  Plant Hybrid Subpopulation: Authority:

General Information Distribution Ptychosperma gracile is endemic to (Bismarck Archipelago).

Range Size Elevation Area of Occupancy: Upper limit: 280  Afrotropical Extent of Occurrence: Lower limit: 0  Antarctic Map Status: Depth  Australasian Upper limit:  Neotropical Lower limit:  Oceanian Depth Zones  Palearctic  Shallow photic  Bathyl  Hadal  Indomalayan  Photic  Abyssal  Nearctic Population The number of individuals is not known.

Total Population Size Minimum Population Size: Maximum Population Size: Habitat and Ecology This palm tree is scattered in rainforest on both limestone and volcanic soils. This species can survive in open vegetation or in secondary forest if it is allowed to regenerate. Most specimens have been found in very steep conditions in coral cliff forest and mossy forest on ridges dominated by Syzygium spp.

System Movement pattern Crop Wild Relative  Terrestrial  Freshwater  Nomadic  Congregatory/Dispersive  Is the species a wild relative of a crop?  Marine  Migratory  Altitudinally migrant Life History

Age at Maturity Female: Units for Age: Male: Size at Maturity (in cm) Female: Male: Longevity: Units for Longevity: Averate Reproductive Age: Units for Reproductive Age: Maximum Size (in cm): Size at Birth (in cm): Gestation Time: Units for Gestation: Generation Length: Justification: Reproductive Periodicity: Average Annual Fecundity or Litter Size: Annual Rate of Population Increase: Annual Rate of Population Increase: Natural Mortality:

Growth From Definition Tree - size unknow Tree (any size), also termed a Phanerophyte (>1m)

Threats Subpopulations have declined because of rapid and extensive deforestation for plantation agriculture (Essig 1998). New Britain is under serious threat from deforestation (Swartzendruber 1993; Strattersfield et al. 1998) with its lowland forest most susceptible to clearance for timber and conversion to small-scale agriculture and later-scale commercial coconut and oil palm plantations (Swarzendruber 1993). Government forest allocation plans and logging concession boundaries show that all lowland forest in West New Britain is allocated to industrial logging (Shearman and Cannon 2002; Brown and Jacobson 2005). West New Britain province alone continues to account for at least 50% of 's timber exports (Bun et a.l 2004). By 2000 there were few remaining patches of forest below 200m. If current deforestation rate continues, all forest below 200m will have been cleared by 2060 (Buchanan et al. 2008).

Past Present Future 1 Habitat Loss/Degradation (human induced)  1.1 Agriculture  1.1.1 Crops  1.1.2 Wood plantations  1.1.2.2 Large-scale  Conservation Measures P. gracile is not present in any protected areas. It is not listed on CITES and seeds from this species are not known to have been collected and stored for ex-situ conservation purposes. In a previous conservation assessment it was rated as Endangered A1a+2c (Essig 1998) using version 2.3 of the IUCN Categories and Criteria. New Britain is recognised as a global conservation priority by Brooks et al. (2006) and it is included in the East Melanesian Island Biodiversity Hot spot (Behler et al. 2004) and the Ecoregions (Olson & Dinerstein 1998).

In Place Needed 4 Habitat and site-based actions  4.4 Protected areas  4.4.1 Identification of new protected areas  4.4.3 Management  5 Species-based actions  5.7 Ex situ conservation actions  5.7.1 Captive breeding/Artificial propagation  5.7.2 Genome resource bank 

Countries of Occurrence

PRESENCE ORIGIN Year Breeding Non- Passage Possibly ExtinctPresence Native Introduced Re- Vagrant Origin Round Season breeding migrant extinct uncertain Introduced uncertain only season only Papua New Guinea    Bismarck Archipelago   

General Habitats Score Description Major Importance 1 Forest 1UnsetSuitable 1.6 Forest - Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland1Unset Suitable

Ecosystem Services  Insufficient Information available  Species provides no ecosystem services

Species Utilisation  Species is not utilised at all

Purpose / Type of Use Subsistence National International 17. Unknown  The species is not known to be utilised.

Trend in the level of wild offtake/harvest in relation to total wild population numbers over the last five years: Trend in the amount of offtake/harvest produced through domestication/cultivation over the last five years: CITES status: Not listed

IUCN Red Listing Red List Assessment:(using 2001 IUCN system) Near Threatened (NT)

Red List Criteria: Date Last Seen (only for EX, EW or Possibly EX species): Is the species Possibly Extinct?  Possibly Extinct Candidate?  Rationale for the Red List Assessment Papua New Guinea government forest allocation plans and logging concession boundaries show that all lowland forest in West New Britain is allocated to industrial logging. Forest loss across the lower elevation areas of New Britain is a major threat for P. gracile , with estimates suggesting all forest below 200m could be lost by 2060 (Buchanan et al. 2008). However, with collections of this species known in New Ireland and the islands off the coast of Madang and Morobe, where forest loss has not been analysed, it is difficult to estimate the overall loss of forest across the range of this species and also to determine the relationship between this loss and the percentage reduction in population size of this species. Generation time is also difficult to estimate making criterion A difficult to apply. It is clear, however, that due to the forest loss in New Britain that P. gracile is declining at a rate that could plausibly approach the vulnerable threshold in the near future. Hence a rating of Near Threatened. There have been few recent collections of this species, further surveys are stronlgy recommended in the regions of previous collections to determine if the subpopulations are still extant and stable.

Reason(s) for Change in Red List Category from the Previous Assessment:  Genuine Change  Nongenuine Change  No Change  Genuine (recent)  New information  Taxonomy  Same category  Genuine (since first assessment)  Knowledge of Criteria  Criteria Revisio and criteria  Incorrect data used  Other  Same category but previously change in criteria Current Population Trend: Decreasing Date of Assessment: 14/08/2009 Name(s) of the Assessor(s): Loftus, C. Evaluator(s): Notes:

% population decline in the past: Time period over which the past decline has been measured for applying Criterion A or C1 (in years or generations): % population decline in the future: Time period over which the future decline has been measured for applying Criterion A or C1 (in years or generations): Number of Locations: Severely Fragmented: Number of Mature Individuals:

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