5th Planta Europa Conference
Cluj-Napoca - Romania
September 2007

Hepatica transylvanica in Transsylvania

"Working Together for Plants" was the title of the 5th Planta Europa Conference in Romania. All workshops dealt with one overarching question:

How can partnerships facilitate plant conservation in Europe?

Looking at all levels, from local up to European, participants exchanged experience and best practice examples on working together with different stakeholders and organisations on governmental and non-governmental side. It was discussed how partnerships need to be designed to work for the benefits of conservation and landscapes. Planta Europa is all about working together in partnership.

Four thematic workshops dealt with the main partnership theme under broader headings related to the international plant conservation strategies:

Theme 1: Partnership projects for understanding and documenting plant diversity

Theme 2: Partnership projects for conserving plant diversity

Theme 3: Partnership projects for the sustainable use of plant diversity

Theme 4: Partnership for education, awareness rising and capacity building

In the strategic part of the conference, the final review of the European Plant Conservation Strategy led to a discussion on the way ahead for plant conservation in Europe. We did not only develop a new European Strategy to focus our expertise, efforts and attention, but also developed a longer-term vision for plants beyond 2010. With this, Planta Europa is spearheading the conservation efforts with finding new approaches for conservation beyond the 2010 target of halting the loss of biodiversity. An end, or a mere beginning?

Besides the official programme, Planta Europa conferences offered plenty of opportunities to network with plant conservationists from across pan-Europe and present their work in that interesting framework.