Caucasus Protected Areas Fund

Mission Statement

The CPAF’s mission is to support the ongoing operations and maintenance of protected areas in the South Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The Caucasus is a biological crossroads, where species from Central and Northern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa mingle with endemics (local species found nowhere else). Extremes in altitude, broad variations in climate, soil and vegetative conditions has led to a broad range of landscapes and unusually high levels of species diversity, including more than 50 species of globally threatened animals.

The area furthermore contains one of the world’s largest old-growth forests in a temperate zone, providing a valuable carbon-sink in the world’s battle against climate change as well as a refuge for much of the region’s fauna. Conservation International has designated the Caucasus as one of its 34 “bio-diversity hotspots” around the world.

Unfortunately this rich and diverse global treasure is seriously threatened. Critical problems include un-sustainable development, destruction of forests for fuel and poaching, and a severe shortage of funds to do the day-to-day conservation work. It has been estimated that current government budgets cover less than 20% of the funds necessary to effectively operate the priority areas.

In response to these threats, a group of more than 100 regional and international scientists and policy makers have been collaborating since 2000 to produce a single ecoregional conservation plan (the ECP) which proposes the integration of the existing collection of individual protected areas in the region into an expanded trans-boundary network of PAs and connecting corridors.

There are about 80 existing PAs within the three countries. Most already existed in one form or another prior to the demise of the USSR. About 20 of the PAs are major national parks and strict nature reserves. Of these larger PAs, a number have benefited from international donor funds in recent years, including grants from Germany’s BMZ, Norway and the World Bank. These grants, however, typically do not assure long-term funding for ongoing operating and maintenance costs.

The ECP’s planned expansion of the system of protected areas will be of limited value if their ongoing operations cannot be funded. As in much of the developing world, there is a serious risk that PAs in the three core Caucasus countries end up as “paper parks”, i.e., PAs that are demarcated as protected on a map but which in reality are poached and exploited much as unprotected land.

The CPAF’s primary focus will therefore be to tackle this unaddressed but critical need. We will assure the funding of: salaries for rangers and park scientists; information office programs; equipment and facilities maintenance; training; and similar day-to-day costs of protected areas that are in priority conservation areas under the ECP.

While the Caucasus Ecoregion spreads into parts of Russia, Turkey and Iran, its core lies in the territories of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, 100% of which are in the Caucasus. For a variety of reasons, the CPAF has focused its mission on these three countries.

The ECP’s trans-national approach is essential given the number and size of the countries and territories that form the Ecoregion. Many of the areas to be protected lie on borders, and animals require the ecoregional—and not the political—space for their migration, breeding and feeding. The governments in the region have agreed in principle to back this effort. This cooperation has particular significance in a region with lingering territorial conflicts.

Since the three core Caucasus countries gained their independence in the early 1990s, poverty has remained a problem: 2006 per capita GDP was $2,130 in Armenia, $1,750 in Georgia, and $2,360 in Azerbaijan, which unlike its neighbors has the benefit of oil and gas reserves in the Caspian. These are about 5% of Western per capita GDP levels.

The CPAF’s underlying philosophy is that governments with limited resources will be encouraged to maintain and develop their protected area systems if they know that a portion of the cost of running them can be covered elsewhere.

Under the ECP, the PAs are integrated into the overall land-use plans which include sustainable use and community-based management of natural resources outside of, and sometimes within, the PA borders. In this way, it is planned that the ECP and PAs will involve and receive the support of local rural communities. This will be as crucial to their success as the support of the governments.

In summary, the Caucasus Protected Areas Fund will contribute directly to: