Country Focus

Dr Laura Boffi is an interaction design researcher and practitioner with a background in product design. She just completed a one-year research fellowship at the Università Ca' Foscari Venezia in Italy. In this blog, Laura delves into a participatory project focused on biodiversity conservation and local agropastoral traditions, which was inspired by her conversations with a local shepherd in Abruzzo, Italy.

In September 2023, MARGISTAR Working Group 2 (WG2) members travelled to Düzce city in Türkiye. Read on for a brief summary of this COST Action meeting and the experiences we had, including our field trip to Efteni Lake, Güzeldere Waterfall Nature Park, and the Kardüz Upland.

Communities in Türkiye's remote mountainous regions grapple with a myriad of environmental, economic, and social challenges. Among these challenges, erosion stands out as a significant concern. This blog provides and overview of the erosion challenges in Türkiye's mountainous regions and illustrates how soil erosion and flooding caused by deforestation can be counteracted by public intervention by reference to the “Erosion Control Project” for the Çakıt Stream Watershed in southern Türkiye.

Connecting the Anatolian Peninsula in western Asia and the Balkan Peninsula in southeast Europe, the Republic of Türkiye has been the bridge between Europe and Asia for over 2,500 years. The country is renowned for its cuisine, rich cultural heritage, intricate architecture, and varied landscapes. Although it spans across an area of 783,356 square kilometres, making it the world’s 36th largest country, Türkiye is only the 107th most inhabited country worldwide. In this blog, we will provide an overview of Türkiye’s topography, geology, and the marginalisation challenges the inhabitants of its mountainous regions face.

What do reindeer herders in Finnish Lapland and a shoe factory in Mongolia have in common? Karoliina Majuri, a reindeer herder from Ranua, Finland, in 2022 seized a window of opportunity and entered the reindeer leg skin business in partnership with Reindeer Boot, a Mongolian shoe factory.

In May 2023, MARGISTAR members travelled to Finland for their first in-person gathering (and, for some, their first polar summer) in the remote Lappish towns of Inari and Utsjoki. Read on for a short overview of this initial COST Action meeting, the experiences we had, and many of our members’ first introductions to indigenous Sámi culture, politics, and current marginalisation challenges.