Stakeholder dialogue for Pan-Caucasian cooperation on landscaping

As a follow-up event to the international workshop “Protecting biological diversity and sustainable regional development in the Caucasus region” held on 3 and 4 December 2008 in Bonn, adelphi was commissioned by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) to organise the second pan-Caucasian conference to be held on 29 and 30 April 2010 on the topic of landscaping in Ankara, Turkey. This process should help expand the eco-regional approach of many nature conservation projects in the South Caucasus region to the neighbouring states of Russia, Iran and Turkey. The goal of the workshop was to continue and support the exchange of experiences in landscaping in the region and the management of cross-border conservation areas. The possible role of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) as an instrument for supporting communication processes in the countries of the Caucasus region was also assessed.

Participants included representatives of government and scientific institutions, as well as non-government organisations from the six neighbouring states Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia and Turkey. German experts from the field of landscaping and representatives of regionally active organisations such as UNEP, WWF and the European Landscaping Convention were also present. Alongside the organisational implementation of the workshop, adelphi was also responsible for the conception and preparation of content, as well as coordinating all participating protagonists and institutions.