Co-designing earth observation solutions for ecosystems conservation

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are key actors in achieving an effective conservation and restoration of ecosystems, which are crucial to halt global biodiversity loss and to mitigate the effects of global climate change. In a consultation process initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA), CSOs and NGOs raised the importance to (i) develop tools to monitor ecosystems under conservation and restoration actions and (ii) to develop clear processes for identifying high-priority sites for conservation and restoration actions. While they acknowledged the value of earth observation (EO) to achieve these goals, NGO/CSO participants in the consultation process also highlighted a knowledge gap inhibiting the exploitation of the full potential of EO within their activities. In response, ESA funded the PEOPLE-ECCO (Enhancing Ecosystems Conservation through Earth Observation Solutions, Capacity Development and Co-design) project which has as goals to develop EO-supported tools for assessing conservation action effectiveness (A) and identification of high-priority areas for conservation (B), and to develop EO capacity within CSOs/NGOs.<br/><br/>In this workshop we first present user requirements gathered from the CSO/NGO community and invite workshop participants to share their requirements for EO-supported tools and to express their needs for EO capacity development. In the second part of the workshop, participants will identify and co-develop the tools to be further elaborated during the PEOPLE-ECCO project. Both parts of the workshop will include presentations of CSO/NGO participants of the PEOPLE-ECCO project, interactive online feedback, and breakout group discussions.<br/><br/>Expected outcome: The outcomes of the workshop will help consolidate the user requirements, raise awareness of the project, identify opportunities for CSO/NGO engagement and capacity development, and guide the development of user-oriented tools and methods, which will maximise the impact of the PEOPLE-ECCO project activities.