The absence of a consistent digital database of plants of Central Asia is a serious shortcoming in day to day work of nature conservation organizations, protected area staff, as well as for monitoring, and scientific purposes.
The Central Asian Desert Initiative commits to close this scientific gap and to elaborate a sophisticated virtual database accessible for people around the world.
A sound implementation of the database demands the cooperation with leading specialists in the area of geobotany, database management and IT infrastructure.
95% of the global distribution of temperate deserts are located in Central Asia – hence this region carries a high responsibility for the preservation of this biome.
CADI is jointly implemented by the University of Greifswald (Germany), the Michael Succow Foundation (Greifswald, Germany) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Sub-regional Office for Central Asia (Ankara, Turkey).