PEOPLE-ECCO

Effective ecosystem conservation and restoration are crucial to halt global biodiversity loss and to mitigate the effects of global climate change. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are key actors in achieving an effective conservation and restoration of ecosystems, as these multifaceted organizations work on the interface of project implementation, education, public policy advocacy and research.

The two overarching goals of the PEOPLE-ECCO project are to (i) engage CSOs/NGOs active in ecosystems conservation by involving them in the co-design of Earth Observation-supported methodologies applicable in their operational practices and though EO capacity building activities, and (ii) develop, test, demonstrate and validate EO-integrated methods, based on the identified user requirements and co-design. Building on existing EO initiatives and projects, the EO solutions developed in this project will bring in elements of novelty to answer two parallel conservation objectives: monitoring conditions and management effectiveness of existing protected areas (Objective A), and site suitability identification of high-priority areas to be protected (Objective B).