The sight of destroyed ecosystems is harrowing and when considering the scale of destruction humanity is facing one can be even more disheartened. This is especially true if one is involved in the restoration or conservation effort. One reassuring aspect in all this desolation is the fact: “You are not alone!” No matter where you are on Earth, whether you are planting trees, establishing agro-forestry systems with a viable business model, conserving biodiversity, preventing erosion, re-establishing wetlands or protecting mangroves – rest assured, somewhere someone else is facing the exact same challenges as you are. The surrounding conditions might be different, but in essence the problems to be solved are identical.

This is where the module “Learn & Share” comes into play. Module number 4 of the HERMOSA platform is dedicated to the exchange of knowledge. In line with the open source approach of the underlying software libraries, sharing knowledge about best practices, success stories and how to solve a specific problem is being facilitated by this section of the platform. As Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, a noblewoman from 19 th century Austria stated: “Knowledge is the only commodity that grows when you share it.” Since this is true in the sense that knowledge does not leave the brain of the person teaching another person, users of HERMOSA are encouraged to share their knowledge and maybe make someone else’s life easier and receive some inspiration of their own.

After registering on the platform and logging in, the modules “Identify & Connect” and “Learn & Share” are immediately available and free-of-charge. The so called ‘blog-posts’ are special in the sense that they have a location which is established by connecting the post to a project or clicking into the map when the post is created. Due to the geo-reference the blog-post shows up as an icon on the map. You can easily tell which region of the Earth has most information provided by users of the platform. At the same time you can use the search engine by typing in your keyword and then selecting from the list of results the entry which is of most interest to you.

To create a post of your own you need a paid account and a project to connect the information to. Besides being able to write text with images, graphs and tables you can also upload videos, PDFs and pictures to illustrate your success stories to inspire others. You can also provide how-tos regarding the planting of trees, the set-up of a business plan for the sale of non-timber forest products or the management of geospatial data to name but a few examples. Of course you can also talk about your failures to prevent others from making the same mistake but what you present to the world is entirely up to you.

Contact sales@hermosa.earth today to get started!

reposted from https://hermosa.mundialis.de/news/feature-of-the-week-kw-14/