Programme Cooperation Agreement 2012 – 2013

Climate Change and Security in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus In September 2013 GRID-Arendal signed a Small Scale Funding Agreement for the project on ‘Climate change and security in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the South- ern Caucasus’. 108 The project will contribute to the Envi- ronment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) under UNEP’s Subprogramme 2: Disasters and Conflicts. Project objec- tives include: enhanced understanding and awareness of climate change as a security challenge and the consequent need for regional and transboundary cooperation on ad- aptation in the three regions (Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia); enhanced national and local stakeholders’ capacity to anticipate, prevent and mitigate potential security risks resulting from climate change. This project intends to map the cases, in particular in de- veloping countries, where tourism - financially, politically or through education – contributes to the establishment and management of protected areas. The project sup- ports the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism (GPST), which UNEP, UNESCO and UNWTO are developing. As a result of a global survey the catalogue of positive LT&C cases has expanded. The next challenge is to identify from these cases the incentives and mechanisms that could be replicated in other parts of the (developing) world. The project featured prominently during the GPST annual con- ference in March 2012 in South Korea where ‘Communica- tion’ was the main theme of the agenda.  Linking Tourism and Conservation (LT&C) (only 2012)  Capacity building on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) for ODA countries Based on GRID-Arendal’s publication “Vital Graphics on Payment for Ecosystem Services - Realizing Nature’s Value” ( http://www.grida.no/publications/vg/pes/ ) a spin-off promotional video clip has been developed in partnership with the James Hutton Institute (UK). It has been put on the Valuing Nature Networks (VNN) website ( http://www.valuing-nature.net/news/2013/james-hutton- 9.3 GREEN ECONOMY (only 2012)

SIGNIFICANT OUTCOME: Broader international co- operation on the environmental management of the Dniester River Basin The achievements of the Dniester projects include im- proved cooperation and coordination between health authorities in the region responsible for the quality of drinking water, establishment of transboundary co- operation on biodiversity including the management of fish stocks, improved sharing and management of information on the basin, and increased awareness among stakeholders and the public about the value of the water resources in the Dniester Basin and the threats they face. An on-going component aims to re- duce vulnerability to floods. GRID-Arendal’s substan- tive contribution has included the development of the ‘Geoportal of the Dniester River Basin’ and produc- tion of the Environmental Atlas launched in Decem- ber 2012. Integrated Environmental Assessment of Lake Sevan, Armenia As part of the 2011 Work Programme funded by MFA, an Integrated Environmental Assessment of Lake Sevan, Armenia, was carried out in collaboration with the Asso- ciation for Sustainable Human Development in Yerevan. The comprehensive assessment of the current ecological status and trends of the lake was completed in early 2012 and its results summarized in the report, ‘ Integrated as- sessment of ecological state of Lake Sevan ’ in Russian, with a summary in English and Armenian. Options for the improvement of the ecological bal- ance of the lake were submitted to the Ministry of Na- ture Protection, the Commission on Lake Sevan of the National Academy of Sciences and the Presidential Commission on Lake Sevan. Some of the proposals were included in the Programme of Work of the Com- mission on the Lake Sevan for 2012. For example, a Ministerial order (N5-A, 18.01.2012) for the establish- ment of a special joint working group of representa- tives from the Ministry of Operations and the public environmental coalition to investigate the impact of the GeoProMining Gold company on the water quality in the lake was issued based on the recommendations of the report. SIGNIFICANT OUTCOME: Steps towards improving the ecology of Lake Sevan See http://dniester.grida.no/en/about-geoportal and http://dniester.grida.no/en/events/82-latest-news other eurasia work

108. The total project cost is USD 280,000. External funding of USD 160,000 will be received from UNEP ROE. Co-funding of USD 120,000 will be required from the MFA 2014 budget.

50