Monthly newsletter for WWF Caucasus and CEPF mutual effort for biodiversity conservation in the Caucasus

Transcription

1 Newsletter Hot in this issue: Caucasus Protected Areas Fund March-April 2008 Monthly newsletter for WWF Caucasus and CEPF mutual effort for biodiversity conservation in the Caucasus In this issue: New incentive for governments - Caucasus Protected Areas Fund Conservation of the Bezoar Goat in the Eastern Caucasus Controlling and certification of wild plants Sustainable Hunting Area - an alternative livelihood for local populations Environmental awareness of local communities important factor for nature conservation success Steppe landscape in Ag-Gel National Park, Azerbaijan. Hartmut Müller. 1

2 Caucasus Protected Areas Fund Map of main biomes. WWF Caucasus. Recently, the Conservation International, German Government and WWF jointly established a trust fund which would provide long-term financial sustainability for priority protected areas in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. More than 100 scientific experts and protected area managers from the Caucasus countries, together with representatives of international scientific community, have collaborated over a two year period to identify the most biologically important conservation areas in the Caucasus Ecoregion. Due to the severe economic and political crises in the Caucasus region during the 15 years since the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, the amount of government budgetary support for managing protected areas has declined drastically. In order to prevent this threatened and irreplaceable biodiversity from being lost, the Caucasus Protected Areas Fund (CPAF) has been established. It will provide up to 50% of the basic annual operating costs of the protected areas which have been identified as having the highest biodiversity, on condition that the governments will provide the remaining 50% of operating costs. The estimated total annual cost of providing such support is quite modest - about 1.7 million Euro per year for the highest priority protected areas in three countries. However, it is important to provide this support in the form of long-term sustainable funding - in contrast to most international donor-funded conservation projects that only last for a few years, after which very often protected areas start to struggle for maintaining basic physical infrastructure and paying essential running costs. Presently CPAF carries about 8 million Euros, but in order to ensure long-lasting support to selected countries there's a need to fill up the capital to about 45 million Euro which will allow the Fund to operate on interest return and keep main capital untouched. Another strategic direction of CPAF is supporting civil society transboundary cooperation, as a significant tool for investing in stability of the neighboring countries of the region. Recently the Fund has been granted by CEPF with 0.5 million USD for institutional development, which will significantly strengthen its fundraising capacity and position in the public. Map of existing and planned protected areas. WWF Caucasus. 2

3 Conservation of the Bezoar Goat in the Eastern Caucasus Bezoar goats in natural environment. Photo by WWF. Pre-Caspian Institute of Biological resources of the Daghestan Scientific Centre at the Academy of Science of Russia conducts a project dedicated to conservation of the bezoar goat in the Eastern Caucasus. This species is included in the Red Book of Russia. If the tendency of gradual decrease of bezoar goat population will stay at presently existing level in few decades it will be totally extinct on the territory of Russia. In order to counteract this very unfortunate tendency the objective of the project is working out measures for conserving this beautiful animal in the area of historical distribution. The activities of the project include following: analysis of existing populations of bezoar goat in the Greater Caucasus; detection of all dwelling habitats and details mapping; distinguishing between populations with very poor state and relatively better preserved; analysis of all, natural, as well as anthropogenic, factors influencing vitality and population count of bezoar goat; working out of concrete measures aiding in preserving of bezoar goat populations in the fauna of Russia. Planned activities also include production of booklets, brochures and posters for propaganda of bezoar goat conservation. Controlling and certification of wild plants in the Caucasus Dried fruits produced in Armenia using proper certification process. Photo by CWC. Caucasus Center for Wild Plants Certification (CWC) was granted by CEPF to conduct capacity building, in order to prepare for controlling and international certification in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Main aims of CWC are: elaborating methods for the sustainable use and control of wild plant resources in Caucasus Region; improving the income situation of local collector groups; establishing model projects for community development and sustainable wild plant collection in Caucasus Ecoregion. The direct scope of this project was establishing a regional network of inspectors in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia and elaborating basic training program for collectors on the sustainable harvesting of wild plants. The training process was aided by International Eco-Certifier "Naturland" to fit international certification criteria and standards. Presently, after completion of the project, there's a network of inspectors in all three countries who are able to check any harvest in correspondence with strict international standards. This in turn will ensure high competitive value of domestic products and open the door to international markets. Production process in cooperative enterprise in Georgia. Photo by CWC. 3

4 Sustainable Hunting Area - an alternative livelihood for local populations Wild boars at one of the farms. Photo by Shah Ltd. Sustainable hunting enterprise in Azerbaijan was sought after as a reasonable mitigation attempt against increasing pressure on nature practiced by local population, especially in Gabala and Ismayilli districts - two of the economically underdeveloped regions in the country. The project was initiated by Shah Ltd. private enterprise and aided by CEPF to strengthen capacity. The whole enterprise aims to create a hunting husbandry where game species (roe deer, wild boar, etc.) will be bred in captivity and then reintroduced into nature. For these purposes the team has already rented about of 30 hectares of forested area. When the project will be completed following results are expected: the number of the game species will increase through breeding in captivity and then reintroducing them back into nature; poaching will be reduced through establishing a basis for sustainable legal hunting; local population will be interested in saving wild animals in order to attract hunters who usually pay significantly more than the money alternatively acquired through poaching, this in turn will provide permanent working opportunities in the region. Hopefully, this interesting project will generate enough incentives to be successfully repeated in other similar regions of Azerbaijan. Environmental awareness of local communities important factor for nature conservation success NGO Eco-club Tapan" is conducting project targeted to raising environmental awareness of local population. This project is especially dedicated to populations in remote areas of Armenia, which suffer severely from unemployment and poor social options. During last several decades transition to marketing economy caused significant ignorance of environmental problems virtually on every level of society, especially among decision makers. This project is targeted to raising environmental awareness of school pupils and also responsible governmental officials living in and around priority nature conservation areas of eastern Lesser Caucasus. Pupils are preparing for sanitary cleaning of recreation area. Photo by TAPAN. Objectives of this undertaking include: capacity building of secondary school teachers in 60 schools; establishing of "School Centers for Preservation of Biodiversity" - with one center per each of 8 regions in the area; organizing of excursions of school pupils in the reserves and national parks; arranging meetings and gatherings in local communities, as well as campaigns for cleaning territories bordering protected areas; communication of project objectives through mass media and target groups. We wish full success to this challenging and demanding project. Planting of trees in the dwelling places of birds in the town area. Photo by TAPAN. 4

5 Mountain landscape in Kackar National Park, Turkey. Photo by WWF Turkey. 5

6 11, M. Aleksidze Str. Tbilisi 0193 Georgia Tel.: /55 Fax: Nugzar Zazanashvili Conservation Director, Regional Coordinator nzazanashvili@wwfcaucasus.ge Maka Bitsadze National Coordinator for Georgia mbitsadze@wwfcaucasus.ge Tel.: /55 How to Contact Us Karen Manvelyan National Coordinator for Armenia kmanvelyn@wwfcaucasus.am Tel.: Elshad Askerov National Coordinator for Azerbaijan easkerov@wwfcaucasus.az Tel.: Basak Avcioglu National Coordinator for Turkey bavcioglu@wwf.org.tr Tel.: Vladimir Krever National Coordinator for Russia vkrever@wwf.ru Tel.: Tamaz Gamkrelidze Communication Officer tgamkrelidze@wwfcaucasus.ge Tel.: /55 The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund is a joint initiative of l'agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. A fundamental goal is to ensure civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation. 6