Environmental value of eastern European broadway forests

Broadleaved forests of European Russia are important habitats to maintain regional floristic diversity, particularly, many nemoral plant species near the eastern extreme of their occurrence. Protection of these communities meets a problem that none of these species is considered as officially protected in Europe or in Russia. Analysis of total nemoral-species richness is proposed to substantiate conservation measures for these forests. The threshold levels of diversity for nemoral trees and herbs to evaluate thee conservational significance of particular forest communities are determined.