1. GOFC-GOLD Regional Networks Summit
CaucRIN
Giorgi Ghambashidze and Volker Radeloff

2. CaucRIN Network Summary
Established September
Co-lead by Giorgi Ghambashidze and Volker Radeloff
Focus on forest and agricultural land use changes
Degradation of forests, pastures and agriculture
Whole basin assessment for the Kura River
35 participants from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia (and the US)
Good representation of agency scientists, universities, and NGOs

3. CaucRIN Network Summary
Established September 11-12th, 2017
Co-lead by Giorgi Ghambashidze and Volker Radeloff
Focus on forest and agricultural land use changes
Land cover map for the entire Caucasus
Degradation of forests, pastures and agriculture
Whole basin assessment for the Kura River
32 participants from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Turkey (plus the US)
Good representation of agency research institutes, universities, and NGOs

4. CaucRIN Network Summary
Critical issues
Political situation both challenging and interesting
Long history of conflicts
Iranian participation?
Funding
Recent NASA LCLUC call included a Caucasus focus
GIZ and Worldbank quite active
No research project accomplishments from CaucRIN yet

5. CaucRIN Network Summary
First meeting just ended
Next meeting planned in about 12 months
CaucRIN is needed because current monitoring efforts focus on single countries only
No trainings yet, but strongly desired, and planned
Planned
Website with geoportal for the Caucasus
Joint contemporary land cover map
Joint land use change maps
Challenges
Need to build a leadership team from the region …

6. Thank you!
Wish us luck ;-)