Local communities learned how to find rare plants to save forest
The training of the WWF held on June 1-3 near the village of Uznezya in the Altai Republic as part of the "People for Nature" project. Residents of the region, representatives of non-governmental organizations and protected natural areas of the Altai Republic, the Altai Territory and the Novosibirsk Region took part in the event.
The training was attended by local residents of Altai Republic and professional environmentalists who wanted to learn how to identify plants, work with special mobile applications, recognize rare plant species and save them.
Experts from Barnaul city became trainers and lecturers: Victor Nikulkin, coordinator of the WWF Russia forest program in the Altai-Sayan ecoregion, Alexei Gribkov, an ecologist, Lyudmila Pozhidaeva, coordinator of the Adopt a Wildlife Sanctuary program in the Altai Territory, Alexei Ebel, head of the Siberian branch of the Russian Bird Conservation Union.
During theoretical
part of the training, the participants got acquainted with the methodology for
determining Red Book plants, the principles of operation of mobile applications,
such as Inaturalist. In the area
close to the Lake Manzherok, the participants of the training during the field
practice were able to consolidate the knowledge gained during the training.
According to Lyudmila Pozhidaeva, the method of searching for rare species has been used in the neighboring Altai Territory for many years as part of the Adopt a Wildlife Sanctuary program. Thanks to this project, many especially valuable forest areas and habitats of rare species have been preserved. For monitoring areas, special identification applications help nature lovers to make observations and even make discoveries. Today, civil society science concept is very useful. The people are interested not only in contemplating, but also in learning about the world around them, and sharing their observations with scientists.