Successful development of the 2nd International Expert Workshop on PMR

Dr. Costas Kadis (Frederick University of Nicosia), main scientific responsible of the workshop, goes on with its presentation on the Cypriot 'PLANT-NET CY' LIFE+ project © E.Laguna, 05.04.2011

Today, in the framework of the PLANT-NET CY project, Nicosia held the 2nd International Exepert Workshop on Plant Micro-Reserves (PMR), under the cordination of the Cypriot Department of Environment and the Frederick University. The recruitment of participants and scientific coordination of the meeting was made by Dr. Costas Kadis (Frederick University at Nicosia).

The meeting hosted presentations from Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia, Bulgaria and Rumania, and covered case-studies of pilot projects on PMR both developed under the umbrella of the EU's LIFE programme and out of this framework; in addition, embrionary proposals to develop future PMR projects were exposed -case of Rumania, where the selection of IPAs (Important Plant Areas)- allowed a fine selection of sites to be proposed as PMR in the future.

Dr. Costas Thanos (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece) proposed several interesting initiatives to start the networking tasks for a future platform of PMR expertises, institutions and projects in Europe. © E.Laguna, 05.04.2011

As a main issue of the meeting, the first steps to go set up a network of European PMR experts and institutions has been discussed and agreed. Several electronic forums like webpages, blogs and Facebook's pages could be launched in a few time (so please pay attention during the next weeks and months¡).

PLANTNET-CY: 2nd Meeting of the Scientific Committee

A moment of the SC meeting © E. Laguna, 04.04.2011

The headquarters of the Cypriot Department of Environment in Nicosia held yesterday the second meeting of the Scientific Committee (SC) which monitor and advices the development of the LIFE+ project PLANT-NET CY 'Establishment of a plant micro-reserve network in Cyprus for the conservation of priority species and habitats'. As explained and discussed during the SC meeting the project ongoes correctly, being in time for most of the foreseen actions. The SC included representatives of the different partners of the project, both from Cyprus and Greece -case of National and Kapositrian University of Athens, represented this time by Dr. Costas Thanos-, as well al Drs. Emilio Laguna and Vicente Deltoro (Generalitat Valenciana's Biodiversity Service), coming from Spain.

Drs. Emilio Laguna, Costas Thanos and Costas Kadis review the planning to prepare and edit the future book on the PMR initiative across Europe. © V. Deltoro, 04.04.2011

As a special issue, a final micro-meeting (on micro-reserves¡) joined Dr. Costas Kadis (main Scientifical Coordinator of the project, Frederick University of Cyprus), Dr. Costas Thanos and Dr. Emilio Laguna, as main responsibles of the book on PMR initiative to be edited in the PLANT-NET CY project framework. A first list of contents (index) was drafted and agreed, to be implemented during the next months.