When:  6-12 October 2013

Where: Aghveran, Armenia

Who: Balta Daba (Latvia), Khazer (Armenia) and YEE

Description:

Human impacts on natural river ecosystems have been evident in Armenia since ancient times. There are still many examples of how present day Armenians are negatively impacting river ecosystems and their catchments but the NGOs are fighting back in collaboration with the government. These issues that Armenia face are widespread throughout the world.
This project hopes to bring 24 young Europeans together from over 10 countries for one week to learn about river ecosystem improvements and to create a youth partnership so that Europe has a sustainable.
The origins of the project lie in the objectives of its organizer and partners to put efforts into making young people aware of existing environmental problems, particularly restoration of rivers ecosystems, as well as knowledgeable, skillful and capable of properly addressing those issues.

Armenia being a vivid example of country where river ecosystems are in a ragged state, was chosen as host of the project with the aim of providing participants with useful information on how local NGOs and government have been so far fighting the issue as well as giving them an opportunity to put into practice knowledge and techniques on river restoration they will obtain during the project.
Besides that, Khazer, Armenian partner hosting the project and being an organization with lots of relevant experience and expertise on the topic, is capable of sharing these knowledge with participants, whereby empowering them to act in their local countries.

Objectives:

The aim the project is: The main aim of the project is to equip participants with practical tools and knowledge to be able to contribute to the development and improvement of the state of European river systems.

And the objectives are:

• To raise awareness of the positive and negative impacts caused by the human activity (anthropogenic impact ) river ecosystems in Armenia
• To share best practices as to how to efficiently protect and preserve existing biodiversity in the given area
• To teach participants how to use local environmental law in advocating for nature protection

Partners:

• Balta Daba, Latvia
• Khazer, Armenia
• YEE, Czech Republic
• Look East Wild Earth, UK
• Biodiversa, Spain
• Gutta Club, Moldova
• AYA, Russia
• Environmental Youth Clubs, Russia
• National Youth Center "Environmental Initiatives"
• FYCA, Armenia
• Synergy Romania Association, Romania

Funders: