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In an effort to develop a comprehensive protected area system which covers important areas for biodiversity conservation, WWF has been working with Georgian scientists and the relevant government ministries to establish a network of protected areas which
will be designated as national parks. The national park category is a new concept in Georgia, as opposed to traditional nature reserves where human activities were strictly excluded. Some of the proposed national parks include existing nature reserves, an
d all incorporate principles of sustainable development for communities living in "support zones" around the parks. While Georgia's nature reserves were set up to protect mostly subalpine forests and pasturelands from exploitation, the new national parks
will protect representative samples of all important ecosystems and their associated flora and fauna, including lowland deciduous forests and wetlands.
The proposed national parks will cover 6,000 - 7,000 km2 (8-10% of the land area), while a further 21,000 km2 (30% of the land area) will be covered by support zones. Support Groups consisting of representatives of local communities, authorities, conserva
tion and protected area staff, educators, and journalists, have been set up to promote at local level the establishment of the national parks.
The Georgian Government fully supports WWF's proposals and every effort is being made to set up the new system before land privatization takes place. On the basis of a WWF initiative, the Georgian Parliament has passed legislation setting up the framewor
k for new protected areas, the demarcation of their boundaries and enforcement of management guidelines. Mr. E Shervardnadze, President of Georgia, joined WWF's Living Planet Campaign and pledged by the year 2000 that over 20 per cent of the country would
be protected as Georgia's ©Gift to the Earth.ª
The management plans for the first new national park, Borjomi- Kharagauli, and its support zone in the eastern Little Caucasus, were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in June 1995. Plans have been completed for two other national parks in the Eastern C
aucasus, and in the Iorian Wooded Steppe where savannah-like and semi-desert ecosystems are home to 12 endangered species of snake, goitered gazelles, and striped hyenas.
The Government is giving top priority to the protection of the ecologically important and highly sensitive Kolkheti lowlands, which are covered by sub-tropical deciduous forests and wetlands, and to the adjacent Black Sea coast, which includes critical br
eeding habitats for the endangered Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) and other fish. With the assistance of the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), WWF has drawn up management guidelines for the proposed Kolkheti National Park and is
now trying to raise funds to implement the plan.
Since the Greater Caucasus straddle the border between Georgia and Russia, cross-border cooperation will be vital in tackling long-term conservation issues. In June 1996, WWF organized a workshop in which Georgian officials and their counterparts from nei
ghbouring Dagestan in Russia discussed local conservation problems. Participants agreed to cooperate on the establishment of a crossborder protected area that would incorporate the Lagodekhi Nature Reserve in Georgia and the Gutonski Nature Reserve on the
Russian side. It is hoped that cooperation between protected area authorities from both sides will eventually lead to reduced grazing pressure in the alpine and forest areas, a reduction in timber cutting and control of poaching in the Greater Caucasus.
WWF's involvement in anti-poaching efforts in protected areas appears to be bearing fruit. The number of incidents is down sharply in four reserves (Borjomi, Akhmeta, Lagodekhi, and Vashlovani), where equipment and supplies for anti-poaching patrols have
improved morale and strengthened efficiency.
The support of local communities within and around new protected areas will be vital for their survival. It is hoped that the new parks will eventually contribute to local economies in various ways, for example through ecotourism. WWF's environmental awar
eness programme, started in 1992 with support from the Ministry of Education, is now reaching all sectors of society through popular television programmes and newspaper articles. Teachers and other groups are receiving environmental training at a new cent
re in Tbilisi, while summer field camps for schoolchildren and Sunday school projects are also part of a wide-ranging and successful initiative by WWF and local conservation organizations.
Healthy forest ecosystems are essential for the long-term survival of Georgia's biodiversity. But in a nation undergoing great economic stress, it is inevitable that forests will be exploited for both fuel and foreign exchange. Sound forest management pr
actices need to be introduced and enforced as soon as possible. To this end, WWF, the Georgian Society of Foresters, Georgian Greens, the Society for National Parks and Reserves, and "Cuna Georgia" (an organization supporting culture and nature) with fina
ncial support from the German bilateral aid agency GTZ, organized a forestry conference in Tbilisi in early 1996.
Forty-six Georgian organizations from both government and the private sector attended, as well as foreign organizations. Working groups were set up to discuss the basis of sustainable logging, law enforcement, the significance of forests for the economy,
wood, and wood product marketing, and functions of forests as energy sources and groundwater regulators. The Government will use the reports of the working groups as the basis of a sustainable Forest Strategy for Georgia.
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