ECOlogical use of native PLANTs for environmental restoration and sustainable development in the MEDiterranean region

In the framework of the ECOPLANTMED project, the National Research Institute for Rural Engineering, Water and Forestry, organised on Friday 13 November 2015 a dissemination event about “Forest seeds in Tunisia: promoting the use of indigenous species“. 
Abdelhamid Khaldi, the coordinator of the project in Tunisia, started the event by a presentation of ECOPLANTMED (pdf in French). The aim of this presentation was the introduction of the project and its main objectives. 
The second presentation (pdf in French), presented by Mohamed Larbi Khouja, Director of Research at INRGREF, was about the “The genetic forest resources in Tunisia”. He addressed the importance of the forest resources in Tunisia and the need for their conservation.
“An integrated approach to in situ and ex situ conservation of vascular flora” (pdf in Italian) and “Banks and bank networks for the conservation of native flora” (pdf in Italian) were the two last presentations prepared by Gianluigi Bacchetta, the coordinator of the project in Cagliari, Sardinia. He explained the approach of conservation of native vascular flora and the importance of the seed bank in this purpose.
An interesting discussion was conducted with the audience at the end of the event. Finally, there was a visit to the seed bank and the greenhouse that were created in the framework of ECOPLANTMED in order to demonstrate the project results and involve policy makers and other stakeholders in the ex situ conservation of native plants.
This dissemination event was an opportunity to share experiences in forest resources conservation and increase the awareness of the participants.