Designing Transformative Change for Productive Landscapes (19-20 October 2022)
ESP LNN organized a session in the forum entitled “Validating Ecosystem Services” and chaired by Salma Talhouk. The talks included “Ecosystem services and their contribution to the sustainable development goals: A case study from Lebanon” by Michele Citton, “Exploring the potentials of birdwatching as a cultural ecosystem service in Lebanon” by Alexandra Schiller, “TheOtherForest: A tool for ecological and social regeneration providing much-needed ecosystem services in cities” by Adib Dada, and “A productive urban landscape: a method to improve cultural ecosystem services” by Zahra Sadeghi.
ESP LNN also organized an open executive committee meeting and discussed a short term action plan to communicate ecosystem services and reach out to a broad constituency.
Suggestions included communicating ES in Arabic, learning from and documenting success stories in the region, involving university students and young practitioners in internships and training, and capitalizing on ongoing nature-based projects.
The first Middle East Landscape Forum in the MENA region is organized by the American University of Beirut (Lb), Nürtingen-Geislingen University (DE), the German-Jordanian University (Jo) and the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (Jo) with support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The landscape forum is the dissemination event of the Middle East Partnership for Productive Landscapes (MeProLand), a capacity building project targeting young academics in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan to develop their competence for transformative change.
