Biodiversity potential of burial places – a review on the flora and fauna of cemeteries and churchyards

During the past centuries human-induced land use changes resulted in a considerable loss natural habitats worldwide. In transformed landscapes historical burial places such as and churchyards can have the potential for biodiversity conservation. In our we aimed at evaluating the conservation role of these sites and at revealing factors can threaten their biota. Altogether we evaluated the results of 97 relevant studies five continents. We found that cemeteries and churchyards have a considerable role, as even in heavily transformed landscapes they often act as refuges for populations of rare and endangered species; altogether 140 protected taxa were listed the reviewed studies. We revealed that the high biodiversity of burial places is supported their long-term existence and their undisturbed status. However, in parallel with in the social attitude the management of these natural refuges has also been worldwide. We identified the major threats for the flora and fauna to be altered habits decreasing the area of grasslands, intensified management of the cemeteries frequent mowing and logging, the spontaneous and human-induced introduction of invasive species and the overexploitation of natural resources present in cemeteries. As conservation and spirituality is tightly interwoven in cemeteries, the preservation of these can be achieved by the reconstruction of their sacred spirituality, by raising the of local populations for the natural values of these areas and also by specific, management providing proper habitats for the natural flora and fauna.