important plant areas in central and eastern europe - Plantlife

IPAs in South East Europe
IPAs in south east Europe
South east 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.The
Balkan and Rhodope Mountains are recognised as Centres of
Plant Diversity.
Projects to identify the best plant sites in this region have already
begun through pilot work to collate existing data, identify
potential sites, and to assess existing information on land use,
threats and plant conservation policy.
References
Individual country report references are
given adjacent to country accounts
Vangelis J. et al. 2004, Potential IPAs in South
East Europe. (Oral Presentation at SEE
side event at the Planta Europa IV
Conference)
(www.nerium.net/plantaeuropa)
IUCN & WWF, 1994, Centres of Plant
Diversity.
Background to the Project
National coordinators and teams in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia (FYR), and
Serbia and Montenegro have identified several hundred IPAs and 37 cross-border sites in
the Regional Environmental Centre’s (REC) ‘Plants Along the Borders’ Project, which aims
to enhance the co-operation between south eastern European countries through
undertaking joint actions for plant conservation. In Serbia, the national IPA team,
coordinated by the University of Belgrade, have identified many of their IPAs as part of
an ongoing project.
Challenges
The main challenges to the identification of sites were the age of the available data, the
lack of national Red Lists, the lack of vegetation mapping in many countries, and the
short time available for the pilot work.
Threats
Habitat loss through human activity in wetland, coastal and marine areas is very high, as
are the effects of agricultural intensification.The main threats in the mountains are
forestry exploitation, burning, over-grazing and over-exploitation of some of the wild
food and medicinal plants.
Recommendations
• Further funding is required for field investigation, mapping and to engage more
stakeholders
• National Red Lists using IUCN criteria need to be completed and integrated into
European and global Red Lists and legal documents
• Awareness raising among specialists and the public
• Local community involvement in site management and protection
• Engage with government agencies, representatives of state-owned economies and the
private sector to improve strategic planning and conservation action
• Use IPA data to engage with Pan-European and global initiatives
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