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

Conservation translocations are becoming common conservation practice, so there is anincreasing need to understand the drivers of plant translocation performance throughreviews of cases at global and regional levels. The establishment of the Italian Databaseof Plant Translocation (IDPlanT) provides the opportunity to review the techniquesused in 186 plant translocation cases performed in the last 50 years in the heart of theMediterranean Biodiversity Hotspot. We described techniques and information available inIDPlanT and used these data to identify drivers of translocation outcomes. We tested theeffect of 15 variables on survival of translocated propagules as of the last monitoring datewith binomial logistic mixed-effect models. Eleven variables significantly affected survivalof transplants: 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. The integration of vegetation studies in the selec-tion of suitable planting sites significantly increased the success of translocation efforts.Although posttranslocation watering had a generally positive effect on translocation out-come, other aftercare techniques did not always increase transplant survival. Finally, wefound that how funds were spent appeared to be more important than the actual amountspent. Plant translocations in Italy and in the Mediterranean area should account for thecomplexity of speciation, gene flow, and plant migrations that has led to local adaptationsand has important implications for the choice and constitution of source material.