Flora Prespae Database
Creation of a database for the flora of Prespa National Park
The purpose of this project is to gather all the data and information concerning all the flora species recorded in the Prespa National Park and organise them into a single geospatial database. The database, which will follow national and international standards, will make this data more readily available to the authorities and other relevant stakeholders, as well as easier to analyse, with the aim of helping decision makers and managers to protect, conserve and manage the plants and ecosystems of the area more effectively. Furthermore the database will also be available to the general public, harnessing the interest and passion of citizen scientists and plant enthusiasts who visit Prespa and adding their observations to our body of knowledge.
The flora of Prespa was extensively studied by Georgios Pavlidis, who left behind a large scientific heritage of knowledge. In the years that followed, this first record formed the basis for further research by Arne Strid, Erwin Bergmeier and many other great botanists who intensively studied the area. The Society for the Protection of Prespa (SPP) has always supported the research work carried out in the region, including the important work of Giorgos Fotiadis and others on the habitat types of the park and their distribution, while at the same time promoting the dissemination of scientific knowledge about this very important aspect of biodiversity.
The project sees all of this research work incorporated into the Flora Prespae database, which will be accompanied by an easy to use mobile phone app that will allow users to add new records or new information about existing records to the database, either as a botanical researcher or a citizen scientist. A range of communications and education activities will promote and publicise the new database.