Integrated and participatory research and development
An integrated research and development program should then be designed and implemented involving local communities, institutions, and decision-makers, taking into consideration capacity building, preventing inequality, local specifics, dry area ecosystems and understanding specific needs of local communities.
Motivation and promotion of awareness among the people with regard to the activity objectives and the ways to achieve them are essential.
Understanding the specific needs of a local community or a group of beneficiaries is critical in designing and implementing an appropriate system.
Institutional capacity building, water resource management policies, and management and maintenance programs are the keys to success.
Dry area ecosystems are generally fragile and have a limited capacity to adjust to change.
SI provides benefits to farmers such as higher incomes, lower risks, increases water productivity, and has a positive spill-over effect in modern technology adoption (seed and fertilizer). However, its implementation must ensure that farmers understand the practice and how to operate/manage it properly. Most important is determining best time to irrigate and the right amounts to maximize water use efficiency and productivity. Integration of cultural practices and improved varieties is important to achieve best results. Incentives are provided to adopt the technology of drip irrigation, helping modern technologies adoption.
MEET ecotourism products must satisfy a minimum criteria of sustainability and quality to be included in the MEET Catalogue. This criteria is measured and monitored against a specific set of indicators. The process is also supported by MEET tools such as the Ecological Footprint Calculator - used to measure environmental impact. MEET members commit to this monitoring on a continuous basis to ensure continued improvement of the products. MEET is currently expanding the criteria to also measure socio-economic, conservation, governance impact of ecotourism products.
The MEET Ecological Footprint Calculator, developed during Interreg-Med DestiMED project, provides the necessary tool for protected areas and others involved to measure the ecological footprint of their ecotourism product.
Furthermore, to support the use of this tool, MEET recently developed an online training module on using the calcultor. to This online training module is avaialble on www.consevationtraining.org.
Ensure those involved understand the value of this measuring and monitoring from the start, as it can seem like a big undertaking initiaitlly.
As the extension 2.0 says, JECAMI 2.0 is an advancement of JECAMI 1.0. While the previous version concentrated on the suitability of ecological connectivity, JECAMI 2.0 implemented a new concept, the "Strategic Alpine Connectivity Areas (SACA) 1 - 3 to enhance the usability of specific measures.
We defined the following definitions of the 3 SACA types:
SACA1: Ecological conservation areas where ecological connectivity already works quite well (CSI ≥ 8). Ecological connectivity should be conserved in these areas. SACA2: Ecological Intervention areas that represent important links between SACA1 areas (ecological conservation areas). Connectivity is currently working to some extent but would benefit from enhancements. In these areas, improvement / restoration measurements are needed.
SACA3: Connectivity restoration areas represent important barriers between SACA1 areas (ecological conservation areas)
The definition of SACA types must be defined and accepted within the project group as well as by the observers of the project.
Create a simplification of ecological connectivity to improve the understanding of the effect of a measure was a useful task to act on the right place.
Collect and harmonize a bunch of spatial data to describe and map ecological connectivity from 6 independent states and numerous regions is probably the most challenging thing you can do in a GIS-project.
Describe precisely the data you need;
Find the right person to establish the contacts to the data provider;
Be able to handle manyfold data formats, structures and systems.
They think that refusing to disclose data means that open questions are not answered.
