Within communities participating in AWG projects, there is a lot of ambition to expand the scale of efforts, yet it has been difficult to build momentum with a lack of dedicated support and organizational resources.

In the early days of the project, staff relied on personal accounts for data storage, as well as spreadsheets, mapping, communications and social media. While this let them bootstrap efforts, continued growth and increasing complexity of activities created what is known as "technical debt." This added risk, and limited the ability to share information and collaborate effectively.

As project scale and complexity continued to rise, it became clear there was need for integrated systems, and technical support. Meanwhile, plans are being developed with partners to scale-up to a larger presence, across the Tiva river catchment. This will bring new challenges in terms of coordination, communication, and monitoring, but it will also give us the opportunity to engage and support more community members.

It is clear that better solutions are needed  plan, document, and communicate our work. Better solutions are needed. AWG searched for partners to meet these challenges and support growth.

Based on successful adoption in other projects like Wij.land in the Netherlands and AlVelAl in Spain, the AWG team is excited to start a process of adopting an AWG Landscape Network. This will be implemented in close cooperation with local stakeholders to make sure the network is tailored to needs and provides value to them.

In order to ensure value for users, significant developments are being planned to integrate locally-relevant information and features, as well as bring communities to the center of design and decision-making. This helps locals stay in control over - and benefit from - activities being supported, and information generated.

Once the system is in place, we expect it to help coordinate project activities, improve monitoring and operating efficiency, provide access to markets for green business, and support sustainable development in the region. The real-time, high-bandwidth communication between remote stakeholders and landholders makes new forms of collaboration and engagement possible. We are looking forward to seeing the impact on the community and the environment.