On September 9-12, Transboundary Joint Secretariat (TJS) REC Caucasus hold study tour in Tusheti Protected Areas for interested parties living nearby Kazbegi National Park, within the framework of KFW Banking Group funded regional project “Transboundary Joint Secretariat for the Southern Caucasus”.

During the mission Officials from all municipalities of the Mtskheta-Tianeti Region, local communities and NGOs visited villages: Omalo, Shenako, Diklo and Dartlo . In the frame of study tour representatives of Tusheti Protected Areas have shared their experience in the sphere of biodiversity conservation, management and development of the protected area system.

The participants became familiar with and participated in the community-based wildlife watching tours developed by the UNDP/GEF project“Catalyzing Financial Sustainability of Georgia’s Protected Areas System”: Testing site-level revenue generation mechanisms in Tusheti Protected Areas, which is implemented by the Georgian NGO NACRES –Centre for Biodiversity Conservation and Research.

They also visited some of the villages where water supply systems were being renovated/installed by the EU funded project Delivering protected area capacity and engaging traditional pastoral communities to conserve Georgia’s unique and internationally important biodiversity, which is jointly implemented by Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and NACRES.

Exclusive interest of the visitors caused different tours and tourism management program successfully conducted by local staff. The study tour was supported by the Agency of Protected Areas.

The Transboundary Joint Secretariat (TJS) provides support to the Ministries of Environment of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to increase regional sector harmonization and sector development in nature conservation and related socio-economic development.

The TJS is implemented as one of three components of the Ecoregional Nature Protection Programme for the Southern Caucasus which is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through KfW.

TJS is implemented by AHT-Group AG, Essen, Germany, in association with REC Caucasus in Tbilisi, Georgia.