Terms of Agreement

1. Acceptance of our Terms

By visiting the website www.wocat.net, viewing, accessing, or otherwise using any of the services or information created, collected, compiled, or submitted to www.wocat.net, and/or by applying for and accepting membership as an individual member, you agree to be bound by the following Terms and Conditions of Service.

If you do not want to be bound by our Terms your only option is not to visit, view, or otherwise use the services of www.wocat.net . You understand, agree, and acknowledge that these Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and www.wocat.net, and that your use of www.wocat.net shall indicate your conclusive acceptance of this agreement.

2. Provision of Services

You agree and acknowledge that www.wocat.net is entitled to modify, improve, or discontinue any of its services at its sole discretion and without notice to you even if it may result in your being prevented from accessing any information contained in it. Furthermore, you agree and acknowledge that www.wocat.net is entitled to provide services to you through subsidiaries or affiliated entities.

3. Proprietary Rights

You acknowledge and agree that www.wocat.net may contain proprietary and confidential information including trademarks, service marks, and patents protected by intellectual property laws and international intellectual property treaties. www.wocat.net authorizes you to view and make a single copy of portions of its content for offline, personal, non-commercial use. Our content may not be sold, reproduced, or distributed without our written permission. Any third-party trademarks, service marks, photos and logos are the property of their respective owners and might be used by the WOCAT Secretariat without informing or mentioning the proper owner. Any further rights not specifically granted herein are reserved. Data captured through WOCAT questionnaires will be entered, edited, and stored in the WOCAT online database by the compiler or a data entry person assigned by the compiler. Overall responsibility for compilation and data quality lies with the compiler. The compiler, resource persons, and data entry person will be recorded and given credit for the data in the database as well as in any compilation or publication of the documented Technology or Approach. Data stored in the WOCAT database are open access. Data are made available for users under the

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ) .

This means you are free to redistribute our material for non-commercial purposes. All we ask is that you give WOCAT and the compilers and authors appropriate credit and link to the original WOCAT content, indicate if changes were made, and distribute your contributions under the same Creative Commons license. You must notify WOCAT if you repost, reprint or reuse our materials by contacting wocat.cde@unibe.ch.

4. Submitted Content

When you submit content to www.wocat.net you simultaneously grant www.wocat.net an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty free license to publish, display, modify, distribute, and syndicate your content worldwide. You confirm and warrant that you have the required authority to grant the above license to www.wocat.net. However, this license does not impede you (the submitter) to publish the information in a different way.

5. Termination of Agreement

The Terms of this agreement will continue to apply in perpetuity until terminated by either party without notice at any time for any reason. Terms that are to continue in perpetuity shall be unaffected by the termination of this agreement.

6. Disclaimer of Warranties

You understand and agree that your use of www.wocat.net is entirely at your own risk and that our services are provided "As Is" and "As Available". www.wocat.net does not make any express or implied warranties, endorsements, or representations whatsoever as to the operation of the www.wocat.net website, information, content, materials, or products. This shall include, but not be limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, and warranties that access to or use of the service will be uninterrupted or error-free or that defects in the service will be corrected.

7. Limitation of Liability

You understand and agree that www.wocat.net and any of its subsidiaries or affiliates shall in no event be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or exemplary damages. This shall include, but not be limited to, damages for loss of profits, business interruption, business reputation or goodwill, loss of programs or information or other intangible loss arising out of the use of or the inability to use the service, or information, or any permanent or temporary cessation of such service or access to information, or the deletion or corruption of any content or information, or the failure to store any content or information. The above limitation shall apply whether or not www.wocat.net has been advised of or should have been aware of the possibility of such damages. In jurisdictions where the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages is not allowed the liability of www.wocat.net is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

8. External Content

www.wocat.net may include hyperlinks to third-party content, advertising, or websites. You acknowledge and agree that www.wocat.net is not responsible for and does not endorse any advertising, products, or resource available from such resources or websites.

9. Jurisdiction

You expressly understand and agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the country, state, province, or territory determined solely by www.wocat.net to resolve any legal matter arising from this agreement or related to your use of www.wocat.net. If the court of law having jurisdiction, rules that any provision of the agreement is invalid, then that provision will be removed from the Terms and the remaining Terms will continue to be valid.

10. Entire Agreement

You understand and agree that the above Terms constitute the entire general agreement between you and www.wocat.net. You may be subject to additional Terms and conditions when you use, purchase, or access other services, affiliate services, or third-party content or material.

11. Changes to the Terms

www.wocat.net reserves the right to modify these Terms from time to time at our sole discretion and without any notice. Changes to our Terms become effective on the date they are posted and your continued use of www.wocat.net after any changes to the Terms will signify your agreement to be bound by them.

12. Individual Membership Terms

By applying for and accepting membership as an individual member, you agree to the following additional terms:

12.1 Eligibility for Membership

• Any individual who supports the Vision and Mission of the WOCAT Network can apply to become an Individual Member

12.2 Application and Acceptance

• Individual Members must agree on these Terms of Agreements to become a member, subject to approval by the Secretariat and maintaining an active online profile.

12.3 Member Benefits and Contributions

• Individual Members benefit from WOCAT tools and methods and access to detailed information on Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices recorded in the WOCAT database.
• Individual Members contribute to the global WOCAT knowledge base and database by sharing information products, data, or other materials with the Secretariat. Such materials remain the property of the contributing Member, and their access and use by WOCAT Network members shall be managed in accordance with these Terms of Agreement.
• Individual Members may use WOCAT tools and methods in their respective field of work with proper acknowledgment.
• Individual Members are subject to reporting on their activities related to the implementation of WOCAT tools and methods within their field of work.
• Individual Members are permitted to participate in Global Network Meetings on a self-funded basis. The Global Network Meeting takes place every two years or as otherwise determined by the Steering Committee and is jointly organized by the Secretariat and the host of the Meeting, which is either a Consortium Partner or another Organizational Member, changing on a rotating basis.
• Individual Members can request to be included in the Roster of Experts by submitting their profile to be included in the Roster available on the WOCAT Website. The Executive Team is responsible for determining the criteria and procedure to evaluate an applicant’s experience and expertise for inclusion in the Roster, which is maintained through an annual subscription.

12.4 Maintenance of Active Membership

• Members must maintain an active online profile by logging in at least once a year to update or validate their profile.
• Failure to maintain an active profile will result in the automatic lapse of membership status.

12.5 Termination and Re-application

• Membership may be terminated for failure to comply with membership commitments or actions adverse to the Vision and Mission of the WOCAT Network.
• Termination decisions are made by the Executive Team.
• Individuals with a lapsed or terminated status can re-apply for membership.

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21 June 2024