More than 80 people from an array of institutions from all around the Mediterranean attended the 1st Mediterranean Plant Conservation Week which took take in Ulcinj in Montenegro on October 24 to 29, 2016.

This event aimed at connecting plant scientists with site managers, local populations and civil society organizations, in order to promote a dialogue on plant conservation issues and to preserve the ecological integrity of plant biodiversity in the Mediterranean region. It also represented an opportunity to develop a framework for dialogue among stakeholders to share successful examples of plant conservation initiatives with local communities, and to enhance capacity building.

IPA Skadar Lac © M. Valbuena Perez / IUCN Med

This event was one of the milestones of the IPAMed project and represented a fantastic networking and learning opportunity for all IPAMed partners and for people working on Mediterranean plant conservation.

Various activities were held during this week, such as:

• Workshop sessions : focused in strengthening the networking in Mediterranean plant conservation, in exchanging experiences and in learning from other experiences in the Mediterranean Basin. The content was structured in following topics:
  • Session 1: Integrating wild plants information for site management and conservation.
  • Session 2: Cultural practices for conservation in the Mediterranean region.
  • Session 3: Community-conserved areas in the future management of biodiversity, land and water in the Mediterranean (Summary Session 3).
  • Session 4: Networking, building synergies and involving volunteers and citizen science.
• Capacity building sessions around three key issues on plant conservation:
  • Plant species conservation planning,
  • Pastoral management and plant conservation,
  • From ex situ to in situ conservation.
• Field visits to Important Plant Areas.
• IPAMed project mid-term review session (closed to IPAMed project participants).
• Mediterranean Ecosystem Profile Update – CEPF (Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund) consultation process session. This session aimed at refining, validating data, solving boundary conflicts to ensure that Important Plant Areas; and plant information had been considered in the ecosystem profile. This session also allowed plant experts to provide input on main threats to plant diversity, and propose criteria for identification of priorities for conservation.

IPA Skadar Lac © M. Valbuena Perez / IUCN Med

On the following website: http://www.medplantsweek.uicnmed.org, you can find the event programme, all presentation files, all photographs of the event and information about the activities which took  place during the week (information are available in French and English).

Hosted by Green Home, our partner spearheading work in Montenegro’s IPAs, this event provided an opportunity to meet people working in plant conservation around the Mediterranean region, to exchange experiences, to learn from others, to discuss about the challenges plant conservation is facing and to visit several IPAs in Montenegro.

During this week different initiatives developed by IUCN, Global Diversity Foundation, Mediterranean Consortium for Nature and Culture, Plantlife and CAREMEDIFLORA had also the opportunity to exchange and interact.

This event was funded by MAVA Foundation.

For more information, do not hesitate to contact : Marcos.valderrabano@iucn.org