Mountain Orjen is a part of international sites recognized for their biodiversity, named Key biodiversity areas (KBAs). Approximately 800 ha of Mt. Orjen have been proclaimed as Nature Park and are protected under the national legislation. Mt. Orjen is also recognized as an Important plant area (IPA), and especially known for its high endemism. Several species are, according to current scientific knowledge, identified to be at the brink of extinction, first and foremost being Iris orjenii (only occurrence is in Mt. Orjen, steno-endemic), and several other of which scientific knowledge is lacking: Satureja horvatii, Astragalus croaticus, Dianthus knappii, Hyacinthella dalmatica, Aquilegia nikolicii, as well as Scilla litardierei and Edrianthus serpyllifolius.
Orjen, and consequently important plant species, are subject to various threats posed to all Montenegrin coastal mountains: deforestation, afforestation, urbanisation, burning of vegetation etc. This, coupled with the mentioned lack of scientific knowledge and engagement of stakeholders, gave birth to this project and its main objective, to build capacities of NGOs and key stakeholders to be able to work across institutional and sectoral boundaries toward achieving shared conservation goals.
The project is led by NGO EnvPro, and partners and consultants on the project are the Agency for development and protection of Orjen, BoĊĦtjan Surina from the University Primorska from Slovenia, Pavle Cikovac, independent researcher and NGO Egroup from Bosnia and Hercegovina. The project donor is Critical ecosystem partnership fund (CEPF), and project duration is from February 15th 2019 to May 2022.
