The 2nd Mediterranean Plant Conservation Week (MPCW) with the theme "Conservation of Mediterranean Plant Diversity: Complementary Approaches and New Perspectives" was held at the University of Malta, Valletta Campus from 12 to 16 November 2018.

The event was a gathering point for botanists, civil society institutions working in the plant conservation field, community members, and for those interested in plant conservation programs or sustainable development projects. It represented an opportunity to develop a framework for dialogue among stakeholders, share successful examples of plant conservation initiatives with local communities and enhance capacity building.

The 2nd MPCW integrated different events together, including the annual meeting of the Network of Mediterranean Plant Conservation Centers ‘GENMEDA', the presentation of the CARE-MEDIFLORA project results, as well as sharing with various other plant and habitat conservation initiatives and approaches.

Sessions on species conservation, methodologies, technical aspects, mapping tools, site based approaches, monitoring and many other interesting topics were addressed over the four days.

Additional side events included the launch of the Italia Malta Interreg Project SiMaSeed which is a collaboration between Malta and Sicily for the conservation of endangered plants on the two islands. Additionally a number of entities were promoting conservation initiatives, and these side events included Global Diversity Foundation (GDF), the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), Small Mediterranean Islands Initiative (PIM Initiative), the ‘MedIsWet' project (Conservation of Mediterranean Islands Wetlands).

For the second time, the main organizers of this event were the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation and the ‘CARE-MEDIFLORA' project. This year they counted with the collaboration of the University of Malta. A field trip was foreseen as to give an idea of the geology and vegetation of the Maltese Islands, starting from the North East coast and proceeding to the Northwest side of the Island to see a range of geological features, topography and associated vegetation.

The IUCN-Med also launched and presented the publication Conserving wild plants in the south and east Mediterranean region in which more that 25 expert have contributed.

Details about the event and the programme are available here.

For further information contact Marcos Valderrábano

Photo: Participants at the 2nd MPW © Pilar Valbuena