Creation of a database for the flora of the Prespa National Park
The Society for the Protection of Prespa is pleased to announce that the proposal for the project “Creation of a database for the flora of the Prespa National Park*”, submitted by the SPP & the Department of Forestry & Natural Environment Management of the Agricultural University of Athens, has been approved for funding and started from the 1st of October. The project, with a total duration of 15 months and with a total budget of 49.500,00 euros, is funded by the Green Fund under the programme “Natural Environment and Innovative Actions 2021” of the Priority Axis 3.
Our proposal received a total score of 88/100 ranking first out of 105 proposals that were submitted. The project will be implemented by the Society for the Protection of Prespa with the Department of Forestry & Natural Environment Management of the AUA as a collaborating institution and with the participation of scientists from universities of Greece (National & Kapodistrian University of Athens and University of Thessaly) and Germany (University of Göttingen).
With more than 1800 species and taxa, Prespa hosts 26% of the Greek flora, making it one of the most important biodiversity areas in the country. The aim of the project is the creation a digital database that will include all the available information on each species, viz. their biological and ecological characteristics, bibliographic sources, photographs and dynamic maps with geospatial information regarding their distribution in the National Park. The database will be available in the form of a website, constituting an innovative tool for the protection and management of the natural environment and citizen science. To enhance the database, the creation of a mobile phone application that will allow users to collect field records is also planned. Both the website and the app will target not only botanical researchers but also citizen-scientists, with the aim of making the project widely accessible.
*The project “Creation of a database for the flora of the Prespa National Park”, with a total budget of 49.500,00€, is implemented by the Society for the Protection of Prespa and the Department of Forestry and Natural Environment Management of the Agricultural University of Athens, in the framework of the funding programme “Natural Environment and Innovative Actions 2021”, of Priority Axis 3: “Citizen Participation – Innovative Actions with Citizens”. The project falls under the thematic area ‘Biodiversity’ (A.4.1. Inventory, monitoring, conservation and restoration of natural habitats and wildlife species of Community and National interest, with the aim of halting biodiversity loss & A4.2. Management plans and actions to address invasive species) and is funded by the Green Fund.