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Story | 31 Jan, 2017

Moving forward the Red List of Ecosystems and the Important plants Areas in Lebanon

A workshop on the Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) was organized for the first time in Lebanon on January 20th, 2017. The aim of this meeting was to provide a short training on the RLE methodology and to evaluate the feasibility to conduct a Red List of forest ecosystems assessment in Lebanon in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and the Association for Forests Development and Conservation (AFDC).

Following this workshop, the Nature Conservation Center at the American University of Beirut (AUB-NCC) hosted on January 21th, the National Meeting on the Conservation of Plants and Important Plant Areas in Lebanon, in the context of the IPA-Med project. It was an unprecedented occasion to gather many plant conservation stakeholders in this country. More than 50 people from an array of institutions (including the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture and Tourism, some NGOs, most Universities, and IUCN Members) attended this workshop devoted to exchange and share information on plant conservation in Lebanon through four panels: mapping plant diversity, status and conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants, conservation in action, and civil society and conservation.

It was also an occasion to display participatory maps developed in collaboration between the AUB-NCC and municipalities which host many Important Plant Areas (IPAs) on their territory, focusing more specifically on the two IPAs Sannine-Kneisseh and Beirut-Jiyeh, which are the focus of the IPA-Med project in Lebanon.

The IPAMed project is promoting wild plants and habitats conservation for people in 24 IPAs located in 9 countries in the South and East Mediterranean region. This project is coordinated by IUCN-Med and Plantlife and is funded by the MAVA Foundation.

The IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation participated actively in these two workshops, with a presentation on the RLE and the coordination of the IPAMed project.

For further information: Marcos Valderrábano.

Project description:

This project represents an ambitious initiative to develop plant conservation actions in the South and East of the Mediterranean region (including north Africa, middle east and Balkans) combining the experience and expertise of Plantlife International and IUCN.