New Regional Project:Sustainable Land Management for Mitigating Land Degradation and Reducing Poverty in the South Caucasus Region

In April 2009, the Regional Environmental Centre for the Caucasus (REC Caucasus) in partnership with Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN, Georgia) has launched a regional initiative - Sustainable Land Management for Mitigating Land Degradation and Reducing Poverty in the South Caucasus Region. The project will be implemented in the South Caucasus region - Khrami-Debeda and Alazani-Iori watersheds. “Green Lane” Agricultural Assistance NGO is taking part in the project as an associated partner in Armenia, and RUZGAR NGO is involved in the project as an associated partner in Azerbaijan.
The project is financially supported by the European Union (EU).
The objectives of the Project are:

• Strengthening policy, planning and regulatory environments for promotion of sustainable land management (SLM) in transboundary watersheds of the South Caucasus region via development and endorsement of bilateral watershed SLM Action Plans; and
• Demonstrating benefits of watershed based sustainable land management and alternative livelihood for rural people while protecting fragile ecosystems and disseminating lessons learned and best practices.

At the first stage of the Project, it is planned to conduct a study to analyze the trends and dynamics of land degradation in the Khrami-Debeda and Alazani-Iori watersheds. Later, based on the results of the research, the land sensitivity maps and internet portal of the watersheds will be created. The Project will be implemented in close cooperation with all stakeholders in the South Caucasus Region. At present, the Project team is working on development of the land degradation database and identification of stakeholders within governmental, NGO, scientific and business sectors.