An Important Plant Area programme has been initiated for the Arabian region by the IUCN Arabian Plant Specialist Group. The aim of this programme is to assess hotspots of plant diversity in the region and designate the most important as Important Plant Areas. These assessments are conducted on the basis of specific criteria and this paper presents the criteria which have been adopted for the Arabian Peninsula countries of Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen. These Arabian criteria differ from those originally developed for Europe, and so they are presented here in full. This paper also discusses the context of the Important Plant Area programme and its ability to provide a framework for conservation planning.

Jabal Qaraqir in Saudi Arabia is the first site to be assessed for the Important Plant Area (IPA) programme in the Arabian Peninsula. This paper describes the geology, fauna and flora of the Qaraqir site and provides the first botanical checklist of the area. It designates the locality as an IPA due to the quality of the wadi vegetation and the presence of endemic and biogeographically relictual species. As well as assessments, this study also touches on the planning stage of conservation activity. Socio-economic issues and threats to the conservation of Qaraqir are discussed and suggestions for conservation action are provided.

Over the last three decades, vegetation surveys in southwest Arabia have documented the existence of a small number of valley forest patches. A well-known area is in Wadi Rijaf, Jabal Bura, a protected area which has recently been surveyed by the current authors. The other valley forest sites in southwest Arabia have not been surveyed for over 15 years. This paper presents a descriptive study of five of these important valley forest localities. To provide an assessment of conservation value, field studies recorded the extent, quality and composition of the vegetation and the presence of regionally rare species. The significance of these remaining patches of Arabian forest, and the immediate threats to their survival, are also discussed.

The Farasan Archipelago in Saudi Arabia is an Important Plant Area (IPA) in the Arabian Peninsula. This paper describes the flora of the Farasan Islands and provides an up-to-date botanical checklist together with background information on the geology and fauna of the islands. It designates the locality as an IPA due to the presence of nationally and regionally rare species and the presence of good examples of mangrove vegetation, which is both regionally and globally threatened. In addition to conservation assessments, this study also examines conservation planning concerns, particularly the colonisation of the main island Farasan Al-Kabir by the invasive species Prosopis juliflora. Suggestions for conservation action are provided. A new combination is made for Tetraena boulosii.

Mimusops laurifolia (Forssk.) Friis is the largest tree species in the Arabian Peninsula, and a characteristic species of the threatened southwest Arabian valley forest habitat. In order to understand the distribution and conservation status of M. laurifolia, this paper collates the historical records of M. laurifolia and compares them with recent survey data. This comparison highlights that the abundance of M. laurifolia has dramatically declined at sites that were previously considered important for this species. In Arabia, approximately 100 individuals of M. laurifolia remain at eleven localities. From their size, it is likely that many of these are extremely old trees, but there is currently little regeneration. The main threats to this species are the loss of valley forest habitat through overgrazing and road construction, overexploitation of M. laurifolia for wood as well as climate change. Based on these findings, we recommend that M. laurifolia should be classified as Endangered (EN) in the region on the IUCN red list. We recommend some basic conservation measures and identifies an urgent need for further research on the distribution, propagation and restoration of this species.