2021 NATIONAL RED LIST OF FUNGI:FOCUSING ON CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES

Abstract

The National Red List plays a crucial role in the conservation of fungi, considering the significant threats they face, such as habitat loss and fragmentation, decline in symbiotic hosts, overexploitation, pollution, and climate change. The importance of protecting fungi is evident, and although unofficial red lists were created in the past (2000 and 2010), the new National Red List of Fungi of North Macedonia holds official status. This document includes a total of 64 spe-cies, each assigned to specific categories. Among them, six fungal species are classified as Critically Endangered (CR), nineteen as Endangered (EN), thirty-four as Vulnerable (VU), two as Near Threatened (NT), two as Least Concern (LC), and one species is categorized as Data Deficient. The majority of the listed taxa (fifty-three) belong to the phylum Basidiomycota, while ten taxa are associated with the phylum Ascomycota. In this article, we will focus on the Critical-ly Endangered species, which are as follows: Bovista paludosa Lév, Galerina sphagnorum (Pers.) Kühner, Galerina tibiicystis (G.F. Atk.) Kühner, Hyphoderma etruriae Bernicchia, Xeromphalina junipericola G. Moreno & Heykoop, and Zeus olympius Minter & Diam.