Second Meeting towards a Scientific Network in the Caucasus Mountain Region

The meeting towards a Scientific Network in the Caucasus Mountain Region – was organised on 30-31 May 2013 at the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia in Tbilisi. 

In addition to stakeholders invited to the April 2013 preparatory meeting, the organisers invited scientists from Turkey (Ankara University) and Iran (The University of Malayer and Mountain Environment Protection Society), which meant that the initiative now covered the entire Caucasus ecoregion. To involve a still wider range of groups,  Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (Georgia) and the Institute of Zoology and Institute of Botany of the Academy of Science of Armenia were also invited. Finally, the meeting was also attended by different international/donor organisations, as well as by European scientific networks and institutes.

The two-day meeting concluded with a joint declaration on the further development of the Scientific Network in the Caucasus Mountain Region. The main outcome of the meeting was an agreement on the establishment of the Ad Hoc Informal Working Group, which was tasked to define a) the institutional setup of the Network, b) elaborate the future agenda of the Network, and c) identify priority areas of Network interventions on the basis of an assessment.