The 4th Mediterranean Plant Conservation Week (4th MPCW) is a congress that aims to bring together researchers and managers related to the conservation of wild plants and their habitats around the Mediterranean. The event will take place from 23 to 27 October 2023 at the Botanical Garden of Valencia. The 4th MPCW will expand its initial goal—centred on the conservation of species and the relationships between people and wild or cultivated plants– towards the complementary recovery of habitats, as a contribution to the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration.
This congress will be a meeting point where different opinions and experiences from diverse fields of knowledge will converge. This can be done by connecting experts on plant conservation and ecological restoration, being conscious that the last goal of plant rescue is not possible without the full recovery of the ecological functions on site.
Additionally, the 4th MPCW intends to be a forum where experiences from the different sides of the Mediterranean region can meet and establish links for future cooperation projects. Specialists from Southern Europe, the North of Africa, and the Middle East can find here a forum for the conservation of a common natural heritage, including plants, their habitats, and the knowledge on how to manage and use them in a sustainable way.
The 4th MPCW is a window to show research results and experiences in form of oral presentations and posters, not only from the plant or ecological sciences but also about the relationships between the public and the plant conservation world (citizen science, ethnobotany, local involvement, bottom-up initiatives, landraces, etc.), opening a new paradigm for the next decades around the Mediterranean: The plants are for the people, but with the people.
This edition is organised by the Centre for Forestry Research and Experimentation (CIEF), and the Botanical Garden of Valencia, in collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), GENMEDA and Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (CIHEAM-MAICH).
