11th ECCB Conference - Sardinia

The 11^th Conference of the European Committee for Conservation of Bryophytes was held in Cagliari, Sardinia from 19^th to 22^nd May 2026. It was organised by the Bryology Working Group of the Italian Botanical Society, and the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (Botany section) and the Botanical Garden (HBK) of the University of Cagliari together with the ECCB board and IUCN representatives.

More than 60 bryologists attended to the conference from all over Europe (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherland).

Thirty-three oral presentations were held, arranged in the following four sessions:

1) Effects of environment, including climate change, on bryophyte diversity,

2) Bryophyte conservation: from red-listing to conservation actions,

3) Bryophyte systematics, diversity and floristics,

4) Bryophyte experimental biology.

Twelve additional posters on other topics were presented.

The final two days were dedicated to excursions to visit bryophyte diversity hotspots on the island. On the first day, the conference participants explored the bryophyte flora of Giara di Gesturi, a basaltic plateau in southern Sardinia. After a traditional, long and hearty lunch, we visited the Aymerich park in Laconi with limestone rocks and waterfalls. We spent the second day in the Marganai forest, where examined typical Mediterranean bryophyte assemblages growing in this mountain forest.

During the conference, the ECCB general assembly was held, where Thomas Kiebacher, the chair of ECCB, presented the results of the election of the ECCB board, introduced the new board and outlined some plans of ECCB for the near future.