IMPLEMENTATION OF NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN/ECOSYSTEMS AND SPECIES CONSERVATION: BROWN BEAR (PHASE I)

The project was launched in June 2004 with financial support of Environmental Investment Program of BP and BTC co. and SCP Co. Ltd. It was dedicated to the conservation of brown bear and its habitat in the Trialeti range and Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park. Phase 1 was completed in summer 2006. Shortly afterwards a project proposal for Phase 2 of this initiative was elaborated and submitted to BP and BTC C. and SCP Co. Ltd. for funding.

The first phase of the project was dedicated primarily to a baseline study and to the participatory development of the action plan for the conservation of brown bears in Trialeti mountain range and within the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park.

Apart from NACRES members, the project team consisted of world-renowned bear experts: Dr. Djuro Huber from Croatia and Dr. Jon Swenson from Norway. There were also NACRES volunteers who participated in collecting large quantities of essential field data.

Results of field and desktop studies conducted in 2004-2005 were compiled in the document entitled Bear Population Status Report. This report consists of the following chapters: A short description of study area with socio-economic and demographic variables by district (Tetritskaro, Gori and Borjomi); bear habitats and their status – classification of forest habitats, condition of forests (canopy cover, horizontal visibility, the level of forest degradation), status of bear population (density index, spatial and temporal patters in distribution, minimum population size); utilization of forest resources per district (official records, trends in forest exploitation over the last 10 years, use of fuel wood, underlying reasons that contribute to the illegal use of forest resources); public attitudes toward bears; current threats to bears and their habitat (poaching, increased access to bear habitat, logging operations, human-brown bear conflict, and the lack of public awareness).

In February 2006 a stakeholder workshop was held and included among participants were international experts working with the project. A first draft report of the bear population status was presented and discussed. Also, an outline of a brown bear conservation action plan for Trialeti range and Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park was drafted and shared at the workshop.

After receiving and incorporating comments of many stakeholders, the project team completed the final document of the bear population status report. Based on this document, as well as well on international experience, a draft Brown Bear Conservation Action Plan for Trialeti range and Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park was fully elaborated. It was then distributed among all stakeholders for their review. The final version of the plan based on their feedback was later prepared and presented at a second stakeholder workshop that was organised in Tbilisi in July 2006.

The Brown Bear Conservation Action Plan has been based on a participatory approach to nature conservation. It is also a complex document and each of its components will require collected contributions of various stakeholders as well as their concerted action in follow-up. Moreover, the successful implementation of this plan is impossible without active public participation. The ultimate goal of the plan is to ensure the co-existence of bears and humans by the implementation of various conservation practices. The vision is as follows: the existence of bears in Georgian forests is not only widely accepted by the society as a whole but that the local population is also interested in maintaining sustainable bear populations.

The action plan consists of the following chapters:

1. PREAMBLE

2. INTRODUCTION

3. GOALS

4. HABITAT CONSERVATION

4.1 Campaign against illegal logging

4.2 Development of recommendations to minimize the impact of forestry operations

4.3 Monitoring of human-induced succession in forest ecosystems

5. CONTROL OF ILLEGAL BEAR HUNTING

5.1 Encourage cooperation between the public and the local Environmental Inspection Unit

5.2 Conducting public awareness activities

6. CONFLICT BETWEEN BEARS AND LOCAL FARMERS

6.1 Preventive measures against crops and livestock damage inflicted by bears

6.2 Establishment of an Intervention Group

7. BEAR POPULATION RECOVERY

7.1 Brown bear population recovery in the Algeti Nature Reserve

7.2 Brown bear population recovery in the hunting reserve "Fauna"

8. TOURISM AND BEARS

9. CURRENT LEGISLATION AND BEAR HUNTING

10. MONITORING OF BEAR POPULATION

11. RESEARCH

12. CAPTIVE BEARS

13. PUBLIC INFORMATION AND PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES

The Bear Population Status Report and the action plan were published in Georgian and distributed among all stakeholders involved in their development, as well as among other interested organisations, individuals and various other stakeholders.

The Brown Bear Conservation Action Plan for Trialeti Range and Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park is a public document. The Ministry of Environment has approved it as a guiding document. Counted among the potential executors of individual components of this plan include NGOs, private sector representatives as well as a range of interested individuals.