The importance of integrating herbarium records into conservation plans: a case study on Honduran ferns and lycophytes

Societal Impact statement
Herbarium collections are powerful, yet underutilized, tools for global biodiversity conservation and protected area management. By integrating digitized herbarium records with existing biodiversity data, previously unknown plant species were uncovered, exposing critical gaps in conservation knowledge. These insights underscore the urgent need to harness herbarium data to refine conservation strategies, equip decision-makers with more precise information, and drive evidence-based policy. Maximizing the potential of these vast botanical archives can transform conservation efforts, safeguarding ecosystems essential for both planetary health and human well-being.

Summary
The world's herbaria represent an invaluable reservoir of biodiversity information, increasingly accessible through the digitization of specimens. This wealth of data serves as a critical tool for informing and shaping national conservation strategies for protected areas.
By integrating herbarium data with biodiversity assessments into local management plans, a more efficient and effective approach to conservation is achieved. In species-rich countries like Honduras, biodiversity knowledge is often represented by herbarium specimens housed in institutions worldwide; however, this valuable information frequently remains excluded from protected area management plans and species lists.
A case study focusing on Honduran ferns and lycophytes reveals several significant discrepancies: only 66 unique species are reported in management plans compared to 216 species identified solely in herbarium records for the same protected areas. Approximately 30% of unique species recorded in management plans lack valid vouchers deposited in herbaria. Notably, the incorporation of herbarium data highlights considerable inconsistencies in how biodiversity is reported within Honduras's protected areas, with a Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) analysis indicating a significant difference in community composition between herbarium and management plan records.
To address these gaps, we propose a best practice protocol for integrating herbarium data into species lists at the local level, along with targeted determination of herbarium specimens and verification of records for national species lists.