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Friday,
July 27,
2007, #142 (1409)
Take a chain-smoking dandy in his early twenties, a Peace Corps volunteer, a slightly run-down office in Telavi and a GEL 12 000 annual budget. Add an enthusiastic group of people, some external support and plenty of concern for the environment of Kakheti, and what you get is the Georgian Society of Nature Friends (GSNF), one of the most active—and most needed—environmental NGOs in the country. Kakheti, the vineyard of Georgia that is situated in the northeast of the country on the border to Azerbaijan and Dagestan, has a number of serious environmental worries: there is the threat of desertification in the Dedoplistskaro area, there is the pollution of the Alazani river (which has led to tensions with downstream Azerbaijan in the past), there is the new license for extensive timber production around the Kakhetian village of Kvareli, there is uncontrolled grazing in precious floodplain forests, and there is the need to improve the management of some of the protected areas in the region. At the same time, many of the state institutions responsible for safeguarding the environment lack the means and sometimes the competency to do so. As a response to this situation, a group of young and very enthusiastic environmentalists around student Karlo Amirgulashvili (then in his teens) got together to establish the Georgian Society of Nature Friends (GSNF) in 2000. Their goal is to protect biodiversity and raise knowledge and awareness of environmental problems in the Kakheti region. The beginnings of GSNF were modest: in 2000, the GSNF recruited seven members and collected EUR 20 in membership fees. They began writing, publishing and distributing informative brochures about environmental issues. Fifty copies of every issue were distributed among members, local government officials, schools, libraries and restaurants. The 19 issues to date consisted usually of one page and were funded entirely by membership dues. In the meantime, GSNF has grown to about 500 members, including 22 from the international conservation community. Their annual budget is still small, at approximately GEL 12 000, but their activities have multiplied. An old house in Telavi was converted to an office. GSNF activists take turns guarding the office during the night, to prevent burglaries. In May 2005, the format of the brochure was changed to an eight-page newspaper with colour photos, thanks to a EUR 450 grant from the Georgian Center for the Conservation of Wildlife (GCCW). Circulation was increased to 1000 copies, and 12 issues of the newspaper ‘Buneba XXI Saukuneshi’ (Nature in the 21st Century) have been published to date. Funding for another 12 issues has been secured through an American Embassy Democracy Commission Grant. Sitting in the Telavi office in an impeccable suit and steadily working his way through a packet of cigarettes, Amirgulashvili uses his elegant, slightly old-fashioned German to list past and current activities of GSNF. A major focus has been environmental education. “The vast majority of students in Kakheti do not know about environmental protection, ecology or the importance of the sustainable use of natural resources. Students in small villages often do not know about the protected area that is located near their village, or which endangered animals live there. When we asked for the meanings of the words ‘biodiversity’ or ‘ecosystem’, the majority of students throughout Kakheti did not know the answer. These students, the future leaders of Kakheti, need to learn about the environment, its problems and ways to they address these problems,” Amirgulashvili explains. To address this need, GSNF has established two Eco-clubs. US Peace Corps volunteer Peter Shapland, who is involved in this part of the Society’s work, explains that, “Each club has 25 members from local schools and two volunteer leaders from the university. The clubs meet once per week and implement ecological projects. For instance, they cleaned up the trash at the local park. They also learn about environmental protection and ecology, and participate in ecology-based activities. In summer, they go to Lagodekhi National Park to camp and hike and get muddy for a whole week—thus, they will learn even more about the natural environment in Georgia.” Based on a handful of volunteers, GSNF has also been running an eco-educational project with 242 students in 23 public schools of Kakheti. They are teaching the students about protected areas (or other important natural habitats) that surround their villages, the threatened species in these habitats, the importance of biodiversity conservation, and ways they can protect biodiversity. After three seminars, the students are taken on a hike into their local protected area or habitat to get familiar with—and develop a sense of ownership of—the natural riches at their doorstep. Additional education projects have been carried out with the support of GCCW and the German pharmaceutical firm Walla, and guided nature walks for members have been running since 2004. GSNF has even ventured into higher education, designing and implementing a series of ten power-point seminars at Telavi State University. 34 students and professors have been attending the training on topics as diverse as Georgian landscapes and biodiversity, the Aarhus Convention, and the importance of volunteerism for the environment. However, as Amirgulashvili explains, GSNF does not focus on educational activities alone. The society also carries out practical conservation work. In 2003, GSNF initiated a forest-monitoring project. They are now running an independent environmental monitoring center that is monitoring the state of Ilto and Barbaneuri Reserves, as well as Tusheti National Park. The initial outcomes of the Tusheti monitoring were published, and many recommendations from the report were used to improve the management of the new park. GSNF also provides consultation services to the Regional Forest Department and the Protected Areas Department. In cooperation with the Cacuasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), the society has started to monitor the state of the Alazani River, and of several waste disposal sites along its course. As part of a similar collaboration, the Society is planning to monitor the forest areas around Kvareli that have been licensed for timber production. The wide rage of activities and the impressive successes of the Georgian Society of Nature Friends show that they do not lack competence or enthusiasm. As often happens, however, the limited funds of the Society and their remoteness from the funding opportunities of the capital mean that the Society needs to raise additional funds in order to secure its future. Only if they manage this, through membership, donations and projects, GSNF will be de-listed from—to put it in conservation terms—the red list of endangered NGOs. Both the society and the environment of Kakheti would clearly deserve this. The society is working on their website; their contact email is snf_telavi@yahoo.com. |
Kakheti Nature Friends Protect the Environment 
