Sand dunes in the lab.

The project consists of 2 parts: scientific one and promotion of the results and education.

Scientific part will include:

- Review of up to date botanical research of the area and planning of the field work (May).

- Floristic survey (all seasons). Identification of species will be done with standard botanical determination keys and/or compared with specimens from herbarium collections in Podgorica and Ljubljana.

- Vegetation survey (May to July 2015). The methodology will be accorded to Braun-Blanquet, while vegetation releves will be stored in Turboveg database and further processed with several specialized software packages (Juice, Canoco) (autumn-winter 2015).

- Habitat mapping (May to July 2015). The mapping will be done in ArcGis program, according to EUNIS methodology, base maps scale 1:10.000.

- Results will be published in national and international scientific journals.

Promotion of the project (education): Results of the study will be available in different forms for different target groups. The local authorities and policy makers will get detailed elaborate, accompanied by whole dataset (at the end of the project), while visitors and local population will be informed via lectures, leaflets, daily news articles, short television reportage and interviews, exhibition and informative tables (from June to November). All activities in connection to presentation of results to the public and public activities will involve experienced lecturers, activists of NGO Green Home and curators from the National Museum of Montenegro.

- Lectures will be organized on different level and for different target groups: children (pupils of the several primary schools in Ulcinj and Podgorica), local population and visitors, and students and young scientists. Although the concept of the lectures will be different, the goal is the same: raise of the knowledge about sandy ecosystems of the Long Beach in Ulcinj, its biological value and promotion of its conservation (June-November).

- Educational material: leaflets (ca 300), posters (30) and informative tables will be 3-lingual (Montenegrinian, Albania, English). Leaflets will be delivered either during the educational programs, or by local authorities or owners of the contractor of the part of the beach. Posters will be exposed on the exhibition and afterwards donated to the primary schools and the Biology Department, at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Podgorica (September-November). Informative tables will be installed on the entrance of five beaches with blue flags (spring 2016). Herbarium specimens, photographs, posters, and drawings will be presented in the form of mobile exhibition, which will be displayed in the primary schools in Ulcinj and Podgorica, and at the Faculty of Sciences, in the frame of Manifestation “Days of Biology and Science” (September-November).

- In addition the result of all project activities will be promoted through the project “Conserving wild plants and habitats for people in the South and East Mediterranean” coordinated by our partner NGO Green Home.