Module 2 of the capacity building training for the concept of ecosystem services held

Module 2 of the Capacity building training for the concept of ecosystem services was held on 27 and 28 April in Hotel Bistra, Mavrovo. The topic of Module 2 was mapping and assessment of ecosystems and ecosystem services.

The module started with a lecture by Panayotis Dimopoulos, a professor of botany and ecology at the Department of Biology with the Patra University, Greece, who spoke about the evaluation and mapping of ecosystem services (concept, framework, indicators) and the development of MAES (Mapping and assessment of ecosystem services) in protected areas in Greece, using data from the EU Habitats Directive. The first day ended with a discussion about the development and the implementation of MAES in the Republic of N. Macedonia and an exercise for assessment and mapping of ecosystem services in the Osogovo protected landscape with the use of ES Matrix.

The second day there was a presentation of MAES_GR: a web-based, spatially enabled field survey for the MAES implementation in Greece and a lecture about the floral diversity, ecosystem services and the implications for the management of the National park and the UNESCO Global Park Chelmous Mountain in Greece.

The training held as part of the Nature Conservation Programme (NCP), a project by the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency (SDC) and coordinated by Farmahem from Skopje, was attended by representatives of institutions and organizations that are involved in management and monitoring of natural heritage (already established protected areas, those in the process of being re-declared, etc.), as decision and policy makers.