Last week, Sioni hosted the workshop on “Landscape Restoration Opportunity Mapping”, which was held in a hybrid format and attended by nearly forty stakeholders. The workshop focused on two similar projects (NDC Support Facility funded and World Bank administered project for ‘Preparation of Watershed Management and Landscape Restoration Plan for Areas Upstream and Downstream of Sioni Irrigation Water Reservoir’ and GEF funded and UNEP administered project for ‘Upscaling Global Forest Watch in Caucasus Region’) by showcasing their results as well as consolidation of efforts in order to map the restoration opportunities in Sioni irrigation water reservoir, while taking into account the existing experience and ensuring the active involvement of local stakeholders.
Mr. Otar Shamugia, the Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, opened the workshop. In his opening statement, he said – “the restoration of degraded landscapes is of utmost importance to our country and I would like to express my support for the World Bank initiative as it regards to Sioni irrigation reservoir”. Ms. Darejan Kapanadze, the World Bank representative stated that World Bank and UNEP projects coincide with the common national landscape restoration goals, emphasizing that “the stakeholders and beneficiaries of this project can be thought of as the same, the expediency plan for this project will bear fruit in the Sioni area, while the experience will be used on the national level”. The representatives of Regional Environmental Centre for the Caucasus (REC Caucasus) presented the attendees with the results of the abovementioned projects. Project leaders discussed the use of ROAM methodology in landscape restoration opportunity mapping. Parallel to this, Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model was used to examine soil erosion processes in selected hotspots and the results were presented. In the final session of the workshop, the members of the organization spoke about the selected areas and territories for landscape restoration opportunity mapping, which was followed by a discussion with participation from the attendees. The participants of the workshop included governmental as well as non-governmental sectors and international organizations, including: the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, National Forestry Agency, Georgian Amelioration (Sioni), Tianeti Municipality City Council, World Bank, World Resource Institute, United Nations Environment Programme and Regional Environmental Centre for the Caucasus.
