The natural vegetation of the Republic is exposed to anthropogenic influences, and the number of valuable plant individuals decreases or is completely destroyed. This is gradually showing its negative impact on the ecosystem. Taking all this into account, botanists organized expeditions to different cities and regions of Azerbaijan (Regions of Nakhchivan MR, botanical-geographic regions of the Greater Caucasus, north-east of the Lesser Caucasus, Aran Karabakh and partially Zangilan and Kalbajar territories, all territories belonging to the Southern region, including each National Park) to revise the Red List of Azerbaijan and to carry out scientific-research works, and the modern condition of rare plants was studied. In these expeditions, in addition to plan-program research, separate reports on rare plants were prepared, almost 5-10 rare plants in each climate, about the locations, numbers, role in the vegetation, habitat, causes of decline, trends and what measures to use for their protection data have been collected.
For the first time in 1989, only 140 of the 400 species included in the first edition of the "Red Book" of Azerbaijan, and in the second edition in 2013, 266 higher, 20 primary, and 14 mushroom species were included. But this is not all the species that need protection. So, the results of research conducted by scientists show that this list has increased twice. First of all, because there are 121 rare Azerbaijani and Caucasian endemics spread in Karabakh, which was occupied for 30 years and is famous for its unique flora, most of them need to be included in the III edition. Only 58 out of 121 Karabakh species were evaluated in the II edition.
Our latest research shows that at least 10% of higher plants are now rare and endangered. There are many relics from ancient times, endemic plants of the Caucasus and only Azerbaijan. A large number of them are of food, fodder, medicine, technical, spice, and decorative importance, so they are collected en masse from nature and become rare. Intraspecies systematics reflecting the gene pool of those species should be developed, limiting factors in situ conditions, the reasons for increasing the risk of tolerance should be studied and they should be evaluated ecologically.
As a result, summarizing the list of rare plants compiled by each botanist separately, it is concluded that 25 species limited to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and not included in the "Red Book" of Nakhchivan AR, 33 from Ganja-Kazakh territory, 33 from Karabakh were included in the 3rd edition of the "Red Book" of Azerbaijan. Out of 121 endemic species, more than 60 species are limited to local flora, 11 from the Greater Caucasus, etc. inclusion is appropriate. In addition, there are newly designated species for the Caucasus, the only center of distribution of which is the flora of Azerbaijan (Allium grande, Cerinthe alpinanemone caucasica by PhD in biology, V.N. Karimov, Helasciadium nodiflorum, Thymus hymalis by professor, doctor of biological sciences, S. Ibadullayeva) and it is important that they be included in the new list. It is believed that up to 300 species will be included in the III edition of the "Red Book" of Azerbaijan, and more than 150 species have been included in the pink list.
