The Aichi Biodiversity Target 12 aims to prevent the extinction risk of known threatened species and to improve their\ud conservation status by 2020. We present the integrated strategy implemented in the last 10 years for the keystone plant\ud species of Sardinia (Italy, W. Mediterranean Basin), which includes the following activities: conservation status assessment\ud (following the IUCN protocol), ex situ conservation, in situ monitoring and active protection measures. To date, an\ud average of 51.8% of keystone plant species have been subjected to the latter first three activities while, due to the higher\ud costs, only few active conservation measures have been carried out. Considering the activities realised since 2004, we\ud have also predicted the conservation effectiveness towards 2020 and have elaborated an index to evaluate it. Halfway\ud through the strategic plan, we argue that more efforts are needed to guarantee the effective conservation of all threatened\ud plants in Sardinia

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Know the breeding system of endemic plants is important to design conservation strategies. Translocations are actions to improve the survival prospects of the species, but nowadays there are only a few studies that analyse their success and make a comparison between translocation and the natural populations. Dianthus morisianus is a threatened narrow endemic plant species growing on sand dunes in SW Sardinia (Italy). The objective of this study was to assess the breeding system, the presence of inbreeding depression and pollen limitation, as well as the success of the plant translocation. All these results were compared with those from the single natural population. The breeding system was tested through five pollination treatments and the reproductive success was analysed by the fruit set, seed set, seed weight, germination and mortality rate. The translocated population behaved like the natural one on fruit and seed formation. Autonomous self-pollination was lower than the other treatments regarding fruit set and seed/ovule ratio in the two studied populations. The species is self-compatible and presents partial self-fertility. The selfing rate was higher in the translocated population and the inbreeding depression presented low values for the natural population, while the translocated population presented negative values. Neither of the populations suffered pollen limitation. The species did not present reproductive problems and it is pollinator dependent. Moreover, the translocated population demonstrated high success after five years, as an increase of the population area and new recruited plants was observed; the offspring were able to flower, fruiting and reproduce. This translocation success increases the survival prospects of the species.

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