Posted on April, 05 2013

In March 28 - 29, 2013 the awareness raising workshops were organized in Lernantsk and Saramej communities (Lori Region, Armenia), which are adjacent to the pilot sites of the EU funded regional project "Increasing the Resilience of Forest Ecosystems against Climate Change in the Southern Caucasus through Forest Transformation". The project in Armenia is implemented by WWF Armenia and aimed at increasing the resilience of forest stands against climate change. The overall objective of the project is to mitigate climate change impacts and to improve biodiversity and livelihoods of local populations.

The workshops were aimed at assessing the awareness of communities on the issues of climate change and forests, raising the awareness of local communities, local self-governing bodies and local organizations about the climate change and forests, transformation measures and other related issues as well as to share the experience of field workers on their involvement in the forest transformation measures and getting their feedback about the techniques they have been using, problems they have experienced and benefits they have received and others.

The workshops were attended by 27 and 36 participants in Lernantsk and Saramej respectively. A number of issues were raised by the communities, which were addressed by the Project Coordinator and “Hayantar” SNCO representative. The workshop was a good forum to share experience and exchange views on possibilities of more efficient involvement of communities in the forestry field activities. The importance of forest restoration and valuable contribution of the funded projects such as the EU project was highlighted and acknowledged.

For further information:

Siranush Galstyan
Project Coordinator
Tel: +374 10 54 61 56 (ext. 15)
Email: sgalstyan@wwfcaucasus.org

Gera Voskanyan
Partnership and Communications Manager
Tel: +374 10 54 61 56 (ext. 14)
Email: gvoskanyan@wwfcaucasus.org