Important Plant Areas in south-eastern Europe

South Eastern Europe is one of the most diverse regions in Europe for wild plants and their habitats, which occur in a mosaic of mountains, forest, grasslands, river gorges, lakes and coastlines. This beautiful nature is well known by the tourism industry too, which makes it a potential threat to wild plants and their habitats in the Balkans.

In February 2006 Plantlife International and its Dutch partner NGO “FLORON” received funding from the BBI Matra fund of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality for a project entitled The Planta Europa Network and the Important Plant Areas (IPA) Programme in South Eastern Europe. The three partner countries, Bulgaria, Croatia and Montenegro, have done preliminary work on IPA identification supported by the Regional Environment Centre’s (REC) “Plants along the border” project, the results have been incorporated in the report of IPA in central and eastern Europe. The three-year project will build upon those experiences and work with specialists and stakeholders in the partner countries to produce and publicise a national IPA inventory. Croatia and Bulgaria just completed extensive work on their national red lists, which will facilitate the identification process substantially. The IPA identification will be beneficiary for the implementation of PEBLDS, PEEN and the EU Habitats Directive and Natura 2000 network in the partner countries.

The exciting new element of this project is its focus on building a bridge between identification and conservation. Each country will develop a plant conservation pilot project on one IPA site to gain recommendations for IPA protection and management. Furthermore Plantlife International will encourage one transboundary conservation project and a small scale capacity building programme for members of the conservation community in the region.

Plantlife International and the partner organisations will work closely with Planta Europa to strengthen plant conservation in this region.