Project Description

Starting in 2018, the University of Hohenheim (UHOH) and the American University of Armenia’s (AUA) Acopian Center for the Environment are collaborating on a 4-year academic exchange program funded by DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service. The project’s full title is the German-Armenian Network on the Advancement of Public Participation GIS for Ecosystem Services as a Means for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development. Expediently, the acronym GAtES is used to refer to the project.

Internationally, Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) approaches for ecosystem services have become particularly vibrant academic and practitioner fields as they allow for integrating information on perceived ecosystem services with biophysical data (e.g. on biodiversity, erosion processes) and expert-based management plans. The GAtES project supports the AUA faculty and researchers in acquiring knowledge on the ecosystem services concept and PPGIS-based methods and how they can be used in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. A better understanding of ecosystem services and PPGIS approaches is enabling AUA faculty to embed these concepts in their certificate and minor programs in Environmental Studies. AUA researchers 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 faculty and students, on the other hand, are gaining experience in international cooperation and developing strategies for advancing biodiversity conservation for forests and pastureland by applying the ecosystem services framework in a post-Soviet context.

Project Description

AUA Acopian Center for the Environment has designed an e-learning course on environmental education and an online platform for delivering the course within the UNDP-GEF “Development of E-learning course on Environmental Education” project. The course includes 11 modules revolving around a wide range of environmental topics which have also been developed by the AUA Acopian Center within the UNDP “Environmental Education Training Modules” project.

The modules comprise up to 24 hours of training and including the following topics:

• Global environmental challenges and opportunities
• Armenia’s environmental challenges
• Environmental governance (global & Armenia)
• Sustainable agriculture (including food)
• Sustainable cities (including transport)
• Sustainable forests / biodiversity
• Energy efficiency
• Renewable energy
• Responsible consumption
• Responsible production
• Circular economy: eliminating waste

The project is a part of a larger project being implemented by UNDP Armenia called “Generating global environmental benefits through environmental education and raising awareness of stakeholders,” which is co-funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNDP.

https://ace.aua.am/projects/undp-development-of-e-learning-course-on-environmental-education/

PONTOS aims to enhance transboundary cooperation for large-scale, harmonized environmental monitoring across the countries of the Black Sea region and beyond. The vehicle towards this objective is the exploitation of numerous freely available and incrementally credible Copernicus data and services (e.g. Copernicus Land and Marine Environment Monitoring Services).

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a global Standard to promote open and accountable management of natural resources in its member countries. Armenia has started the process of accession to the EITI in July 2015. Countries implementing the EITI must disclose information on tax payments, licences, contracts, production and other key elements around resource extraction. Civil society’s substantive participation is an important part of a country’s ability to become an EITI member.

This e-learning course covers the EITI standard, its basic requirements, concepts and procedures, functions of the EITI multi-stakeholder group (MSG), basic principles of responsible mining and EITI media communication peculiarities.

Արդյունահանող ճյուղերի թափանցիկության նախաձեռնությունը (ԱՃԹՆ) միջազգային ստանդարտ է, որի նպատակն է խթանել բնական ռեսուրսների բաց և հաշվետու կառավարումը նախաձեռնությանը անդամակցող երկրներում։ Հայաստանը ԱՃԹՆ-ին անդամակցության գործընթացը սկսել է 2015 թվականի հուլիսին։ Նախաձեռնությանը միացած երկրները պարտավոր են ապահովել ռեսուրսների արդյունահանմանն առնչվող հարկային վճարների, թույլտվությունների, պայմանագրերի և արդյունահանման հետ կապված այլ կարևոր փաստաթղթերի մասին տեղեկատվության թափանցիկությունը: Քաղաքացիական հասարակության ակտիվ մասնակցությունը կարևոր բաղադրիչ է երկրի՝ ԱՃԹՆ-ին միանալու գործընթացում:

Այս էլեկտրոնային դասընթացն անդրադառնում է ԱՃԹՆ ստանդարտին, հիմնական պահանջներին, հասկացություններին և ընթացակարգերին, ԱՃԹՆ բազմաշահառու խմբի (ԲՇԽ) գործառույթներին, պատասխանատու հանքարդյունաբերության հիմնական սկզբունքներին և ԱՃԹՆ վերաբերյալ մեդիա հաղորդակցության առանձնահատկություններին։