Provision of a European Bryophyte Checklist

Tender description

The European Committee for Conservation of Bryophytes (ECCB) is working on a new bryophyte Red List for Europe in a four-year project led by IUCN, supported by EU LIFE funding (LIFE14 PRE BE 001). The Associated Beneficiaries are the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic and ArtDatabanken from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, with donor support from Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Council of Europe (see the official project website for further information). The entire European bryophyte flora is being assessed against the IUCN criteria to produce threat categories for all 1816 species. The work has been distributed amongst bryologists throughout Europe and draft assessments, produced by a small number of ECCB assessors/co-ordinators, have been discussed at a series of 5 regional workshop meetings during 2016-17. The project is being implemented in collaboration with the IUCN Species Survival Commission, with the Bryophyte Specialist Group Red List Authority Co-ordinator playing a key role in the assessment review process. A final Red List will be published and promoted at a press launch in Brussels by IUCN in mid-2019. Ireland, through the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, has played no small part in this major project, which now involves contributions from bryologists and institutions from over 50 European countries, including Russia. Ireland conceived and initiated this work with very modest seed-funding for a pilot study in 2012, matched by co-funding from Sweden, and is now seen as an international leader in bryological conservation. The publication of the first European checklist in 2015 is very widely cited in international journals and has enhanced the profile of the Department and its in-house NPWS Irish Wildlife Manual Series Refer to RfT