The South Central and Eastern European Regional Information Network (SCERIN) of the Global Observation of Forest Cover and Land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) Program held its Fifth Capacity Building Workshop (SCERIN-5 CBW) during June 20-23, 2017 at the facility of the Faculty of Sciences, Institute of Geography, University of Pécs, Hungary. The workshop was held in coordination with a Trans-Atlantic Training (TAT5), sponsored by ESA. SCERIN-5 focused on the current Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) challenges in the SCERIN region, connected with integrated forestry, watershed management and natural hazards management.

The workshop brought together over 40 participants from 12 countries, including SCERIN members from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and USA; and observers from Georgia and Norway. SCERIN-5’s goals were: to inform about regional LCLUC priorities, ongoing scientific efforts and data requirements; to facilitate new networking activities and projects with joined contribution from the SCERIN participants. The CBW thematic focus was on the current LCLUC challenges in the SCERIN region connected with climate change and anthropogenic influence on ecosystems, addressing their significance and influence on the social processes and ecosystem functioning.  Senay Habtezion represented START in the meeting and presented on Capacity Building under GOFC-GOLD and the role of regional networks.

All presentations and materials from the workshop are available at the SCERIN-5 web site http://csebr.cz/scerin2017/presentations.html.