DAAD East-West-Dialogue Programme 2018

The border region of Western Ukraine, Romania and Moldova serves as the focus region for a situation analysis and the development of strategic options. Due to its diverse ecosystems and its respective provisioning and regulating ecosystem services, this focus region plays a central role for a sustainable ecosystem‑based development that can only be effectively achieved in border‑crossing collaboration.

Partner institutions of all three countries are involved in the implementation of the project activities.

The project is composed of two measures:

• a study trip in the region (May 2018)
• a workshop (autumn 2018) in the focus region

Furthermore it integrates:

• two research stays (one junior and one senior researcher from Ukraine) in German border regions
• two study visits of German students in the focus region

From 11 May till 20 May 2018, a study trip with international master and bachelor students from Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development and Ukrainian National Forestry University together with project partners from all three partner countries took place in Western Ukraine and Northern Romania.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee's approval of the extension and transformation of the “Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and the Ancient Beech Forests of Germany, Slovakia and Ukraine” to “Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe” on July 7th 2017, now including 78 component parts in 45 protected areas in 12 countries (find more about it  here), was taken as an occasion to visit some of the new and old parts and to discuss further needs and opportunities of transboundary cooperation.

The group visited four sites of the world heritage serial in:

• Roztochya Biosphere Reserve
• Svydovets massif of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve
• Uholka-Shyrokyi Luh massif of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve
• Strâmbu-Bâiut forests in Romania

At each site the group had the chance to talk to representatives about the current situation, possible conflicts, strategies for conflict prevention, problem solving, and much more. To enrich these meetings the group also had been able to experience the different sites, guided by scientists, which provided the students with detailed answers to their various questions. Beyond the discussions with the different representatives the group had also the opportunity to talk to locals.

Furthermore, the group visited the Bukovel and Dragobrat ski resorts, whose ongoing expansions are threatening the surrounding ecosystems, as well as parts of an area that is planned to get converted into an even bigger ski resort on the Svydovets massif (for more information see here) – with some of the areas being adjacent to beech forest World Heritage Sites.

During the trip, several input and discussion sessions were hold along the way and in joint rounds of talks. The movie "Lopukhovo" was shown and led to a very vivid discussion about the current situation of Ukraine. Our Moldovan partners introduced us to the current situation in Moldova by giving a presentation and mentioned that plans exist to build water power plants on the Ukrainian side, which would also have a heavy impact on the Moldovan ecosystems. That once more showed how important it is to build transboundary cooperation in the area. And last but not least, Ms Catalina Bogdan as director of the Maramureş Mountains Nature Park visited the group to present the development and the current situation of the park, which again led to a joint discussion about future opportunities for transboundary cooperation for conservation and sustainable regional development.

Here you find some first impressions of this very succesful and intense week:

On 25 October 2018, the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management and its partners from Ukraine, Romania, and Moldovia as well as experts from different protected areas and NGO`s met for an international conference and workshop on the topic of transboundary cooperation. This should also involve the question on how the use of the ecosystem services concept might help to protect ecosystem functionality and to stabilise the border region. The conference took place at the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve headquarters in Rakhiv, Ukraine.

The goal of the meeting was to initialise a joint publication on the topic during this day. For this purpose ten presentations were held and discussed. After the input, the group sat together to further discuss the topics and focus on research questions that might structure the paper. This even brought up more and new perspectives and important issues that need to be covered.

It turned out that the topic is so pressing and relevant for the region and the participants that although very fruitful discussions evolved, they unfortunately had to be broken off early due to lack of time. Therefore, it was decided that a first documentation and wrap up of the discussed issues will be compiled, which then can be further processed by all interested parties.

Some impressions of the meeting (pictures by A. Dichte and R. Kopan):