This past weekend (28.02. to 01.03.) we sucessfully realized a capacity building workshop for species IUCN status categorization, species conservation planning and ecological niche modelling (ENM).

The workshop took place in Podgorica, with participants being seven young environment students and researchers from Montenegro who gathered to learn from our partners, Boštjan Surina (Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, University Primorska) and Petar Glasnović (Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, University Primorska).

The workshop focus were Mountain Orjen endemic, rare and threatened plant species. We used data on these species gathered in 2019 and data previously collected by our partners to create species distribution maps i.e. species area of occupancy and extent of occurence maps. To accompany the created maps, we used individual count and number of populations data when available. Using this information, we performed species IUCN threatened status categorization and ecological niche modelling for Edraianthus serpyllifolius, Dianthus knappi, Iris orjenii and Salvia brachyodon. EN models were created with the purpose of finding suitable habitat for future species reinforcement. The results of these assessments will be available through a study published towards the end of the project (May 2022) or on request to EnvPro.