6^th to 8^th September 2003
Assessment completed: 31^st January 2004

Dr. Gerd Michelsen, University of Lüneburg, Germany; Dr. Michel Shilin, Russian State Hydrometeorological University, St. Petersburg, Russia; Mr. Uli Graebener, UNESCO Moscow Office (all not closely associated with the chair) and  Dr. Raimonds Ernsteins, chair-holder, UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Coastal Development, University of Latvia, Riga (closely associated with the chair)

Results

The UNESCO Chair was established at the Centre for Environmental Sciences and Management Studies of the University of Latvia (CESAMS) and the legal relationship is confirmed in a document entitled: ‘Regulations on the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Coastal Development, Institute for Environmental Science and Management, University of Latvia’. According to the information of the chair holder, this agreement is currently being discussed, and the Centre will most likely be integrated into one of the faculties of the University. While this might be useful for financial and administrative reasons, the chair would otherwise be better of with its current independent status.  

Chairholder

The contract between UNESCO and the University of Latvia is attached to this report (Annex 4). This agreement has recently expired. The Chair was advised to request a prolongation of the agreement with a letter addressed to the Director General of UNESCO. 

The assessment team suggested, that UNESCO Chair should in future be considered to be identical with the Centre (which is in line with Article 4 of the agreement), to make best use of the image of UNESCO.  

Due to the relatively high overhead rate of the University, it is difficult for the Centre to provide its experience commercially, e.g. in form of consultancy activities. 

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the Centre (chair) will keep its independent status within the University of Latvia. If this proved to be impossible, it is strongly recommended, that the chair will be included into a faculty, where it can keep a maximum degree of independence (e.g. into the Faculty of Economy). It is also recommended that the chair urgently send, via the Rector of the University of Latvia, a letter to UNESCO requesting the prolongation of the agreement on the status of a UNESCO chair. Arrangements enabling the chair to also act commercially as a centre of excellence could open new opportunities for income generation.

Teaching

The UNESCO chair’s responsibility is to carry out the Master’s study program in Environmental Management and the PhD study program. The Master’s study program was revised in the last few months. It has an inter-disciplinary approach with a strong focus on social science and is characterised by the following elements: problem analysis, politics, planning, program and practice. The study program lasts two years, it integrates practical experience and field exercise in groups and has two attendance days every two weeks during the semester. Additionally, the students, who normally work besides their studies, have to cope with reading, other working materials and homework in private studies. The Master’s thesis is written during the study time and evaluated by a teaching staff member once a semester. A semester abroad is not mandatory. Each intake consists of 40 to 60 students, the dropout quota is extremely low (about 1 – 2 students).  Talks with students showed that the degree of satisfaction among them is very high. Until now, more than 300 students have successfully graduated. The Master’s study program is carried out by the chair with 5 teaching staff members (professors and lecturers with PhD degrees from different disciplines), 3 staff members in charge of the students (also with university degrees), several lecturers with PhD degrees, other lecturers, experts and practitioners from outside the university.

The 3 years PhD study program is attended by around 12 PhD students at the moment. Normally, the PhD students are graduates from the Master’s study program. PhD study results are regularly presented in seminars. Studies abroad for research purposes were not obligatory. Some PhD students teach in the Master’s study program. The first graduates from the PhD study program are expected in 2004. Besides the PhD study program, a one-year Distance Study program ‘Municipal Environmental Protection’ in cooperation with Lüneburg University (Germany) is carried out. This program is attended by around 25 students. Furthermore, a two-year university-college programme and a study program with close job relevance are being considered.

 The teaching of the UNESCO chair includes the inter-disciplinary approach, field studies, group work and the Master’s thesis.

2003 masters of environmental  sciences graduates

Altogether, the Master’s study program is very useful and beneficial and should be continued in the present revised form. The chair should consider internationalisation of the separate study programs; this could be realised through the regular inclusion of teaching staff from foreign universities (guest seminars and lectures), a more intensive utilisation of existing cooperation or study visits (if the student has the knowledge of the relevant teaching language) at a foreign university. Giving some lectures in English should be a goal.

The research activities of the UNESCO chair have been categorized by the Ministry of Education as Environmental Sciences. The activities of the chair can be divided into the following fields of research: 

Ø      Environmental System Analysis and Management

Ø      Environmental Policy and Planning

Ø      Coastal Sustainable Development and Local Agenda 21 Planning

Ø      Municipal Environmental Management

Ø      Environmental Communication

Ø      Environmental Pedagogy

Ø      Environmental Impact Assessment

Ø      Public Participation and Environmental Awareness

Ø      Environmental Science Theory

A list of the research projects conducted by the chair in the course of the last years is attached to this report (Annex 2). The projects fall into the following principle categories: (a) Research and development projects, e.g. the North Kurzeme field project; (b) Educational projects, and (c) Pure research projects. The research activities of the chair can be considered very broad and variable and serve mainly practical national research needs.

The chair’s research can be characterized by:

Ø      Interdisciplinary platform

Ø      Cross-sectoral activities

Ø      Orientation to the practical needs of local municipalities (territorial planning; principles of the garbage utilization),

Ø      Collaborative approach,

Ø      Development of initiated field pilot projects into sustainable long-term activities

The collaborative, transdisciplinary research approach of the chair, together with the close cooperation with communities and stakeholders can be regarded as its main asset. This includes analysing local initiatives, public and stakeholder involvement, as well as conducting applied research in close cooperation and with local professionals, government authorities, non governmental organizations (NGOs) and local business. The cooperation partners for the development and implementation of field projects are the North Kurzeme Municipalities Association, the Slitere National Park and Nature Reserve and the minority representation by the Livonian Coast and the Cape of Kolka.   

Personnel are highly educated and skilled, with multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary skills. A precondition for the successful work of the chair is the fact that it has close and personal contacts with all main stakeholders in the priority areas for field work, and is widely accepted as a neutral moderator.

Riga Chair holder and his staff

It is recommended that the chair fully shares its experiences in the collaborative and transdisciplinary approach.

Publications of the chair include 24 brochures (teacher and student oriented, in Latvian, with English summaries), a special chapter in the Annual Research University Conference (with 20 – 30 presentations every year, in Latvian), materials of the Baltic Conferences on Environmental Science and Management (in English), materials of the UNESCO workshops and seminars (in English). 

Documentation is mostly in Latvian, with only short English abstracts for a few reports. Activities are well documented in the local language. 

Reporting of the chair’s activities in other languages needs to be improved. 

Sharing of experiences needs to be expanded beyond the immediate area of the field project and the coastal zone of Latvia using magazines, bulletins, or other informational material. In addition, sharing the successes and lessons with other CSI chairs, interested colleagues and partners through seminars, workshops, annual reports, magazines and the internet, would be beneficial.  

The space occupied by the chair (5 working-rooms, 2 seminar-rooms, one for 20 and one for  40 people, computer-pool with 7 work places, boardroom, library, social room, kitchen and toilets) seems to be sufficient at this point of time. Each working place is equipped with a telephone connection and a computer with the relevant software. Furthermore, a fax machine is available. The chair does not have its own laboratories; but shares these facilities with the corresponding institutes of natural science at the university. Equipment for simple sampling, e.g. water tests, is available. The library, which is very frequently used by the students, contains nearly 6,000 volumes, including English and German literature. However, due to a lack of financial resources in the last few years, the library was not regularly updated and some international journals are completely missing.

The contents of the library need to be improved. As a first step, after a survey of the journals available at the university, subscriptions should be taken out for appropriate international journals. Likewise, the stock of handbooks, anthologies and monographs should be updated. For teaching purposes, a projector is needed.

A list of ongoing partnerships had been prepared as part of this assessment and is attached to this report (Annex 2). The UNESCO chair co-operates with different faculties inside the University, e.g. faculties for Geography and Earth Science, Biology, Economics, and especially with some subjects of the Riga Technical University outside the university. On the international level, the chair maintains contacts with universities in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and the United States. Furthermore, the chair is  integrated into several networks: The Baltic UNITWIN Programme; Nordic Baltic Network (until 1999); UNESCO/UNTWIN Network and CoNET CZA 21. Additionally, an EU LIFE project, Livonian Green Coastal Region – 21, is carried out and the German Latvian study program, Distance Education for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Regional Development in Latvia, is jointly realised with Lüneburg University. A closer cooperation with the two other UNESCO chairs for Sustainable Coastal Management has not taken place until now. Besides this cooperation, the chair works together with several non-university institutions (ministries, regional and local governments, associations and NGOs). Cooperation with the business level is not so well developed. 

To summarise, the chair has numerous partnerships inside and outside the scientific community, that facilitate a lively exchange inside and outside the scientific field. The various partnerships reflect the chair’s inter- and multi-disciplinary method of working.

The existing cooperation and partnerships should be used to initiate joint research projects. In these projects, the chair should take over a stronger position. It should pick-up the initiative for a possible reactivation of the Nordic Baltic Network. The cooperation with the other UNESCO Chairs in Asia and Africa, supported by the UNESCO, should be increased. It also seems reasonable to improve the cooperation within the UNESCO CSI UNITWIN network, however, the interests of the partners seem to be rather diverse. It is suggested that a clear focus for cooperation within this network should be developed. Finally, the chair should consider how contacts to Latvian business enterprises could be established. 

The appearance and recognition of the chair within Latvia is remarkable. Many graduates of the Master’s Study program and PhD students work in professional and executive levels of the civil service, e.g. department heads in the Ministry of Environment, and local departments of environment and planning, and have the possibility to use their university gained knowledge and experience directly in their practical work. The projects carried out by the chair in Latvia have direct effects on the region and different municipalities (North-Kurzeme, Kolka, Roja and others). The chair holder and staff of the chair have close contacts to ministries, governmental and para-statal institutions as well as NGOs in Latvia, and their expertise is in demand. The appearance and recognition on the international level is not as well developed. Mostly, the chair takes part in conferences and organises international workshops in Latvia. There are no information documents or annual reports by the chair with which it could draw the attention to its concrete work.

The existing international contacts should be used more strongly, not only to exchange concrete scientific experience, but also to leave some marks in other international projects. The chair should not shy away from bringing its concrete work into the public light. It should organise more international conferences with the purpose to have an international discourse about the results of the chair’s work. In addition, further development of the homepage, the preparation of a short flyer or information material and an annual report about the chair’s work, which could be given to actual and prospective partners as well as to other interested persons, is recommended. A final recommendation is to prepare a ’Yearbook of Sustainable Coastal Management’ with a peer review in English. The yearbook should be open to publications by external researchers.