The Montenegrin Society of Ecologists (CDE) started work on the project "From education and connecting children with nature, through dendrochronological research, to raising awareness of climate changes in the past few centuries in Montenegro!", which is financially supported by the European Union.
With this project, CDE will be focused on the study of munika forests - endemic, relict pine, which form special and very important habitats in the Montenegrin mountains.
Munika is a species that survived the last great ice age, and individual trees can reach the age of over 1.000 years.
CDE states that this species inhabits an area poor in fertile soil, where other trees can hardly survive.
"This is precisely why, with this project, CDE will begin the study of the records that time has left in individual old trees. Various changes in the microclimatic and other conditions to which a tree was exposed during its life are recorded in the rings of the tree - years. With this project, CDE will start work the first dendrochronological laboratory in Montenegro, where they will work on reconstructing the conditions in which the trees grew during their lifetime. This way we will get data on how the climate changed in the past centuries, but also on sudden disasters that hit an area, such as on for example, fires. Based on this data, it is later possible to predict changes in the future, as well as to design adaptive scenarios for forests and nature exposed to these changes. This type of research is especially important for munica forests, because these trees are easily flammable, so every year large parts of its forests," the announcement states.
A special focus of the project will be on re-establishing and strengthening the relationship between nature and children growing up near the forests of Munika.
By organizing two camps in the wilderness, as well as workshops in nature and in schools, CDE will convey to children knowledge about the values and importance of biodiversity as the most effective shield against climate and other changes, but also as a source of various services that nature has always given to man for free.
"Finally, with an art exhibition dedicated to the forests of Munika and its biodiversity, messages will be conveyed to the general public that concern all of us, regarding the nature that partly depends on us, and on which we completely depend. If we look into Munika, we will see the past, and if we plant it, we predict and prepare for the future with more certainty," the announcement states.
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