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