Project for mitigating land degradation and reducing poverty in the South Caucasus discussed

PanARMENIAN.Net - REC Caucasus organized the first Meeting of the Steering Committee on "Sustainable Land Management for Mitigating Land Degradation and Reducing Poverty in the South Caucasus Region" Project in all 3 countries of South Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.



The need of regional cooperation in combating desertification has been stressed at the International Conference on the Issues of Draught and Desertification in the Countries of the South Caucasus hosted by REC Caucasus in 2002. Even though desertification has intensified over the past years in the South Caucasus region, no measures have been taken at the regional level to address this problem. The program launched in 2009 year and covers Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.



The overall objective of the project is to ensure continued ecosystem functions and integrity, reduce poverty and enhance food security and income for rural farmers in the South Caucasus countries by combating desertification, strengthening the natural resource base and revitalizing the agricultural sector.



The meetings were attended by representatives of REC Caucasus and CENN, organizations implementing the above mentioned project, "Ruzgar" (partner organization in Azerbaijan), "Green Lane" (partner organization in Armenia), and members of steering committee. The members of steering committee represented the authorities, NGOs and scientific circles involved in the project.



REC Caucasus representatives made the presentation on "Sustainable Land Management for Mitigating Land Degradation and Reducing Poverty in the South Caucasus Region" Project: its goals, objectives, expected results etc. The Committee members were familiarized with their duties, in particular to provide consultation to the project national coordinator, to monitor the project implementation and to facilitate implementation of the project at the governmental level.



Implemented activities in 2009-2010 years and future work plan were also presented to the Committee members. The Steering Committee Members discussed the Project work plan for 2009/2010 years and made several comments, especially they stressed the necessity of deeper research of soil in the Region.



In Armenia the Committee members stressed the need for the strategy of agriculture development which will be the guideline for the future activities. On the meeting of Azerbaijan Steering Committee the problem of the lack of knowledge in the region about the rational use of land for agriculture was mentioned. The elaboration of the guidelines for the soil research was named as one of the most crucial issues in Georgia.



The next meeting was scheduled for late May.