According to the second update, forest is the only or partial habitat for 586 lichens and allied fungi in Estonia, i.e. so called ‘forest lichens’ comprise 51% of known species pool of the country. In the light of much intensified forests management during the last decades, our aim was to evaluate simultaneously conservation status and management requirements for the whole group, as so far, regional threat status of most micro-lichens have not been assessed and only some of ‘forest lichens’ are legally protected in Estonia. We extracted species data from various full assemblage based surveys conducted during the past 15 years (e.g. in cut-overs, managed and old-growth forests etc.) and assessed threat status for ‘forest lichens’ not evaluated before based on IUCN system (including, we calculated possible population size reduction of common micro-lichens using decline of the main habitat area within past 50 years as a proxy). Also, the second IUCN system based evaluation was carried out for forest macro-lichens and legally protected species (most recently assessed in 2008). Among ‘forest lichens’ six species were regionally extinct and 161 species were threatened (i.e. had category CR, EN or VU). In co-operation with practitioners, we screened systematically conservation options for threatened ‘forest lichens’ and identified five broad conservation approaches. Of them two refer site protection (either at the scale of habitat patch or immediate substrate) that can be accompanied with special management approach. Two remaining approaches address species habitat conservation indirectly (through sectorial guidelines or protecting via umbrella species). In total, we outlined 19 specific conservation options and management guidelines, as well as identified whether the broad approaches selected would require specific legal basis. Our study showed that for practical lichen conservation lot of under-used options exist in addition to protecting well-known threatened species in their recorded locations.
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