Plant micro-reserve
In Latvia, the existing program of Woodland Key Habitats (WKHs) was adapted into a network of PMRs that received funding to purchase private land for reserves from 2001 to 2011.
While the precise definition of a plant micro-reserve may vary based on which country it has been established in, a 2014 LIFE programme planning document described them as "protected natural plots to ensure the biological monitoring and conservation management".
[6] PMRs are often organized based on "singularity", or the individual site, and "complementarity", or their ability to contribute to a larger patchwork of conservational areas.
[14] They help preserve the type localities of plant species,[7] and protect against uncontrolled urban sprawl by restricting changes to land use.
[13] Seeds collected from PMRs can be used to reintroduce plants to localities where they were previously extinct, as was the case with Medicago arborea subsp.
[18] Another focus of traditional reserves that has unintended consequences is their goal of preserving climax communities at the end stages of an ecosystem's development, particularly old-growth forests.
This often means that endemic pioneering plants or species that require direct sunlight are inadvertently harmed by conservation efforts.
Because biomass management such as grazing or firewood collection can be allowed in PMRs, those methods may be used to protect and maintain the surviving habitats for those types of shrubs and grasses.
The inconsistency of their definition, lack of consideration for past and future evolutionary developments, and their fragmented and dispersed nature are obstacles to successful conservation.
[6] In Europe, there is a wide range of scale in conservation efforts, from Nature Monuments of just a few square meters to National Parks of massive size.
Previously strong populations of threatened endemics like Limonium rigualii and Silene cambessedesii have been reduced or destroyed by coastal erosion of PMRs.
Because authorities that manage PMRs have no jurisdiction outside of the protected reserve, they cannot contest or undo the development of external structures that impact the plants inside the PMR.
[20] The modern concept of a protected area of small dimensions was originally described in 1981, with a proposal for mini-reserves to legally demarcate "enclaves" of endemic flora.
[26] The precursor to PMRs in Latvia were called Woodland Key Habitats (WKHs), which were characterized by high concentrations of rare species that require specific types of forested environments to thrive.
[Note 1][29] Management of the Cypriot PMRs included new efforts, such as removing flammable biomass, rerouting human paths through the reserves to be less destructive, and culling competitive species that encroached on threatened plants.
[30] An extensive pilot project to expand the PMR concept to the island of Crete was undertaken, and by 2013 there were seven reserves established, all on public land.
[Note 2][31]The pilot includes limited monitoring and management involvement, such as recording meteorological data, plant caging, artificial pollination, and the hiring of wardens from local villages to protect the PMRs.
One of the project's focuses was combating over-grazing and reversing genetic erosion caused by unsustainably small plant populations.
[33] In Bulgaria, an initial project for the implementation of the PMR concept took place from 2010 to 2014, and saw the creation of 58 small protected areas following the model of the Valencian plant micro-networks.
In Slovenia, a small network of micro-reserves was established in the Karst Edge area, which consists of rocky limestone slopes and dry grasslands.
The region was claimed to be highly suitable to the PMR concept because of the mountainous terrain that leads to many disjointed plant populations.
