German-Armenian Network on the Advancement of Public Participation GIS for Ecosystem Services as a Means for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development (GAtES).

German-Armenian Network on the Advancement of Public Participation GIS for Ecosystem Services as a Means for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development (GAtES)

Background

Armenia is a global hotspot of biodiversity. However, the country’s rich natural capital is under a multitude of anthropogenic pressure factors originating from, e.g., the mining sector or livestock farming. Forests and pasturelands are especially affected. Degradation of these ecosystems goes along with a loss of ecosystem services (ES), including provisioning (e.g. timber, food), regulating (e.g. water storage, erosion control) and cultural services (e.g. cultural heritage). The ES concept has become a key tool in strategies for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, effective for instance in terms of raising public awareness for the environment and its values as well as informing planning and decision-making. In recent years, the Armenian government has taken concrete steps to ensure a more sustainable use of natural resources and more efficient conservation of biodiversity. While first efforts have been made to harness the ES framework for this, it is still a novel concept in the country and the Armenian education and research sector is largely disconnected from the developments in the global scientific community, e.g. with regard to integrating interests and concerns of local stakeholders into biodiversity and ES conservation. Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) approaches for ES are a particularly vibrant field at the international level as they allow for integrating information on perceived ES with biophysical data (e.g. on biodiversity, erosion processes) and expert-based management plans. Against this background, the overall goal of the GAtES project is to support the Armenian academic community in acquiring knowledge on the ES concept and PPGIS-based methods and how they can be used in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

Aims

The project is a collaboration between the University of Hohenheim, Division of Societal Transition and Agriculture (UHOH) and the American University of Armenia, Acopian Center for the Environment (AUA). AUA staff and students will be the primary target group. A better understanding of ES and PPGIS approaches will enable AUA staff to embed these concepts in their certificate and minor programs in Environmental Studies. AUA researchers will furthermore develop a critical appraisal of PPGIS-based approaches and concepts as well as an ability to apply them in their own research projects. UHOH staff and students, on the other hand, will – by applying the ES framework in a post-Soviet context – gain experience in international cooperation and develop strategies for advancing biodiversity conservation for forests and pastureland.

Activities

To attain these outcomes, the GAtES project aims to initiate a German-Armenian network for knowledge exchange. GAtES focuses on the following outputs and activities, in the time period 2018-2021:

• AUA staff will be trained in the use of PPGIS and ES tools (training workshops).
• In order to strengthen research on ES and PPGIS at both UHOH and AUA, Master’s theses will be carried out on pilot applications for biodiversity conservation in Armenia. Results of these theses will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and presented at a international conference.
• Moreover, the contacts between UHOH and AUA will be fostered through staff and student exchange between the partner universities (for research, teaching and participation in courses).
• The insights from the pilot projects will form the core content of a web-based knowledge exchange platform, which will also serve as a a tool for disseminating the project outcomes to stakeholders from the Armenian public and academic sectors.
• Furthermore, a joint project proposal will be developed, for continuing the work started on ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation.

Partners

University of Hohenheim, Div. Societal Transition and Agriculture (430b)

• Prof. Dr. Claudia Bieling
• María García Martín

American University of Armenia, Acopian Center for the Environment

• Alen Amirkhanian

Project time period

2018-2021

Funding

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Links

http://ace.aua.am/gates/