Format: ORAL

Mart March-Salas1,2; Felipe Morales-Armijo3; Juan Lorite4

1 Plant Evolutionary Ecology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt. Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 2 Area of Biodiversity and Conservation, Department of Biology and Geology, Physics and Inorganic Chemistry. University Rey Juan Carlos-ESCET, Tulipán s/n. 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain. 3 Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Km 145 Carretera Nacional Linares-Cd. Victoria, A.P. 41, Linares, Nuevo León, 67700, Mexico. 4 Department of Botany, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada (UGR), Avenida de Fuente Nueva, s/n, Granada, 18071, Spain

Cliffs are home to a large diversity of endemic and endangered plant species and millennial-old trees that are currently facing increasing threats from climate change and recreational climbing. In recent years, rock climbing has become very popular, with annual increases of 15-20% in the number of climbers. Rock climbing is known to damage plant communities and other organisms such as birds, lizards or snails. However, the origin of the climbing impact remain largely unknown. Climbing impact sometimes compels conservation managers to make insecure or even inappropriate decisions within a framework of growing conflicts among stakeholders. But the climbing community has expressed its willingness to contribute to cliff preservation, with various climbing associations focused on promoting sustainable climbing. We carried out a study investigating the origin of the climbing effects on cliff flora involving the local community. In primal and unaltered cliffs of El Potrero Chico (Mexico), we installed new climbing routes to unravel whether the greatest climbing impact is produced in an initial phase due to the installation (opening) of the route or rather due to increasing climbing frequency. Local climbers actively contributed to create the new routes and posteriorly climbed them simulating the post-opening climbing effect. We found that the opening of the climbing route produced the greatest negative impact on cliff flora, and also promoted the loss of individuals from the surroundings of the route. However, successive post-opening climbing have little effects on cliff flora. These findings clearly evidence the need to consider existing cliff vegetation before developing a new climbing routes, and that managers should focus on this rather than closing existing climbing areas. Given the high complexity of study cliff ecosystems, promoting awareness on its biodiversity and protection needs to the local community will contribute to its preservation.