PRESS RELEASE
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network
28, Chovelidze street
Tbilisi, 380008, GEORGIA
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Conservation challenges by transhumant sheep herding in the South Caucasus
The South Caucasus is settled for millennia. Because of its
exceptional conservation priority the German ministry of Development
Co-operation (BMZ) initiated a multi-year program on `trans boundary’
national parks (NP). In the frame of `Socio-economic tools for
integrative conservation planning in the South Caucasus’ project
semi-structured interviews with local farmers, national park staff,
NGO representatives, and with administrative officials were conducted.
The Javakheti region (Georgia/GE, close to Armenia/AR) is
predominantly inhabited by ethnic Armenians of GE nationality. The
implementation of a recently established NP was retarded by the sale
of high altitude pastures earmarked for the NP to transhumant herders
of Azerbaijan/AZ ethnics also of GE nationality.
Attempts by the administration of Lagodekhi NP (GE, established 1912,
close to AZ) to remove about two dozen high altitude summer camps of
transhumant sheep herders of AZ ethnics (GE nationality) in a recent
extension of the NP have been unsuccessful for several years – even
with financial support from the World Bank.
In both GE NPs, elements of participatory conservation planning were
used.
Across the border in Zaqatala NP (AZ established 1929), the protected
area was extended recently because of overgrazing of high altitude
pastures adjacent to the NP. Herders can be of several ethnics
here. They will be denied access and referred to alternative
pastures. The NP administration enforces a `fences and fines’
approach.
In Lake Arpi NP (AR, no ethnic minorities), participatory NP planning
resulted in a swift implementation of the NP accepted by the local
peasant population.
We conclude that participatory NP planning is complicated by
1. a tendency of national governments to locate NPs at remote border
regions often inhabited by national minorities, 2. a presence of
transhumant forms of land use often conducted by ethnic
minorities. While current conservation planning is well able to deal
with local populations and ethnically `simple’ situation, one of the
above factors (or a combination of both) still poses severe challenges
the conservation of semi-natural high altitude pastures.
Using a strong `fences and fines’ approach does not resolve the land
use conflicts but can facilitate positive conservation
outcomes. Examples of countries with a similar approach, e.g. from
Indonesia in the 1980s and 1990s, suggest that success fades rapidly,
however, if the legitimacy of the governance structure is challenged,
and its efficacy subsequently compromised. Long-term conservation
success may require and active appreciation of traditional forms of
transhumant pasture use by national institutions while paying careful
attention to the needs of the local population.
Socio-Economic Tools for Integrative Conservation Planning in the
South Caucasus project is financed by German Ministry of Education and
Development. Project activities cover Gerogia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The interrelation of `national’ conservation projects, rural
development and the local minority situation will be studied through 2
twinned case study sites – Lagodekhi and Zaqatala National Parks and
Javakheti and Lake Arpi National Parks. The project will end in
December 2013.
For more detailed information please contact:
Talin Kalatas
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development
Chair of Environmental and Resource Economics
Georg- August- Universitaet Goettingen
[email protected]
Dr. Jan Barkmann, M.S. (Maine)
Deputy Research Group Leader “Environmental and Resource Economics”
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development
Faculty of Agricultural Sciences
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
[email protected]/[email protected]
http://www.cenn.org/