Alexandr Iscenco
Other projects
29 Sep 2016
The Codru Quest: Economic Valuation of the Ecosystem Services of the Codru Protected Area by Using Gamification
The goal of the Codru Quest II is to engage 300 Moldovan citizens into conservation of the Codru forest and its biodiversity. We aim to accomplish this by delivering knowledge about ecosystem services and developing understanding of the benefits and values they bring to our participants personally, to the social wellbeing, and to the economy of the country.
Objectives of the project are:
1. 300 stakeholders become aware of the issues related to the forest ecosystem and are educated on ways to tackle them through collaborative sustainable management.
2. Up-to-date data on the current state of ecosystem services and biodiversity in the forest becomes available due to gamified fieldwork research with 50 selected stakeholders.
3. 30 key stakeholders obtain knowledge of the current state and issues, learn how to use ecosystem services for forest conservation, as well as connect with each other to design the collaborative sustainable management model.
Documenting biodiversity and ecosystem services.
The Codru Quest II is a logical continuation of the Codru Quest research project implemented by Alexandr Iscenco, his colleague Elena Ungureanu, and his organization MEGA and supported by the Rufford Foundation in 2017-2018. The second edition relies on its research results from economic valuation of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in the Codru Nature Reserve and the Codru forest in the Republic of Moldova and on the Public Policy Proposal elaborated based on those results.
The purpose of the Codru Quest II is to move further towards the vision of collaborative governance and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystem services in the Codru forest. Specifically, the project brings the necessary stakeholders and influential economic actors together, educates them, and stimulates their collaboration around creating the model and plan on how to achieve the above-mentioned vision.
To make this happen, the Codru Quest II is split into three consecutive phases:
Phase I. On-line education through an e-learning course;
Phase II. Gamified research on the state of ecosystem services and biodiversity;
Phase III. Off-line education and conservation through stakeholder participation.
Each of the phases of the project creates concrete deliverables, which include:
1. On-line course on conservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity delivered to 300 stakeholders;
2. Up-to-date data on the current state of ecosystem services and biodiversity in the Codru forest collected by 50 young researchers;
3. Off-line training programme and educational materials on the topic “Integration of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation into collaborative sustainable management” delivered to 30 most interested and influential stakeholders.
The final practical outcome of the Codru Quest II is planned to be the first version of the model and plan of collaborative sustainable management of the Codru forest elaborated by the educated key stakeholders under the guidance of the project team.