New GC Project: Protecting Borjomi National Park, Republic of Georgia

Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park is the Republic of Georgia’s largest national park, a treasured jewel of nearly 200,000 acres of intact forest and wildlife habitats created in 2001.

Over the past ten years, illegal hunting and logging have continued to decimate endangered wildlife populations, despite great efforts and critical support from international partner Caucuses Nature Fund (CNF) combined with increased government support.

At the invitation of the Georgian Agency for Protected Areas (APA), Global Conservation signed a multi-year agreement in June 2018 to deploy Global Park Defense in Borjomi National Park to monitor all trails and roads used by illegal hunters and wildlife poachers.

The new Park and Wildlife Protection Agreement was signed with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture and the Agency for Protected Areas of the Republic of Georgia.

Working with a determined Borjomi National Park Authority with 56 rangers employed, Global Conservation is focusing on the deployment of Global Park Defense for real-time park surveillance using Cellular Trailcams and community reporting. With the new system, Park Rangers will now be able to target incoming illegal hunters using real-time surveillance to stop the killing wildlife and illegal logging.

A Decimated Wildlife Population

Baseline wildlife populations for the entire park are in danger of further losses with high potential for extinction of many critical species.

Remaining wildlife estimates are:

• Red deer about 700
• Brown bear about 135
• Chamois about 65
• Lynx about 40

The Mountain Goat recently became extinct due to exploitive poaching.

Recently, a Chief Ranger of Borjomi National Park was murdered by hunters who were caught red-handed with dead animals. After a long court case, one hunter was imprisoned, only later to be released after only 3 years.  Further complicating Park Protection, Rangers do not have legal authority to make arrests, requiring police to be involved dramatically impacting park and wildlife enforcement.

Primary Goals - Park and Wildlife Protection

Global Conservation has five goals in supporting Global Park Defense in Borjomi National Park:

1. Deployment of Global Park Defense systems and communications for all Park Rangers 

2. Achieving ‘No Cut, No Kill’ within the park by increasing arrests and fines through a new citation system.

3. Increasing the size of Borjomi National Park to protect adjacent high biodiversity areas by 50-100%.

4. Improve core wildlife populations by 2-3 times for endangered species in 5 years.

5. Training of Park Rangers on Global Park Defense technologies, systems and training for rapid response and targeted patrolling.

Our Partners in Conservation

About Caucuses Nature Fund (CNF)

Our critical partner in Park and Wildlife Protection is Caucuses Nature Fund (CNF) established in 2008 to provide critical resources for all protected areas in Georgia.

The Caucasus Nature Fund (CNF) is a conservation trust fund working to protect the Caucasus wilderness for future generations. Their mission is to contribute to the improved management and sustainable development of the Caucasus’ natural and cultural heritage by providing effective long-term funding support to the protected areas of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Caucus Nature Fund has supported Park Rangers anti-poaching measures in Borjomi-Kharagauli since 2010. CNF’s support has been essential for Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park. Starting from salary top-ups for park staff, operational activities, park patrol vehicles, infrastructure maintenance and equipment such as smatphones and GPS navigators for ranger patrolling.

About Georgia Agency for Protected Areas (APA)

The Agency’s primary responsibility is to manage Georgia’s national parks and world heritage sites including the protection of Georgia’s unique historical-cultural environment and diversity of its gene pool of “Red Listed” and endangered wild animals and conservation of biodiversity. APA also works to promote healthy recreation and sustainable tourism.

About Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park (BKNP)

Covering more than 85,000 hectares of native forest and alpine meadows, the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park (BKNP) is a protected area located 160 kilometres from the nation’s capital of Tbilisi in the central part of Georgia Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park was created in 1995 in order to preserve the region’s extraordinary nature, especially its virgin forests, which consists of the eastern range of the lesser Caucasus Mountains. The total area amounts to 85,083 ha, which is more than 1% of the territory of Georgia.

Borjomi is world famous for mineral water and the lush green nature of Georgia. The pure environment gives the mineral water the distinctive, sulfuric taste and is protected by the surrounding forests of Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park.

Primary Threats to Borjomi National Park

- Wildlife Poaching

- Illegal Logging

- Overgrazing in the Core Areas

Wildlife Poaching

Poaching of Lynx, Red Deer, Brown Bear, Chamois, occasionally Caucasian Black Grouse, Roe Deer and Wild Boar continues inside BKNP. Poachers today believe it is relatively unlikely that rangers would detect them because the rangers do not know how they operate.  As well, even if caught, it is difficult to prove that someone is indeed poaching, as opposed to merely “illegally carrying a gun”, which carries a much lighter fine.

Local judges often are very lenient to poachers, sometimes returning guns that have been confiscated to them. In other Georgian PAs, there is also a perceived lack of training and procedures, as well as specific incentives for detecting poaching and confronting poachers.

During the autumn/winter season, the few rangers in the park are busy administering the fuel wood provision to locals and consequently cannot engage poachers. The park is located in a relatively densely populated area with multiple access points from all directions.

“Global Conservatin is bringing essential support to the protected areas staff and ranger in the fight against poaching and illegal logging” said Levan Tabunidze, former director of Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park. “It gives them motivation to continue their work more effectively.”

Figures from Georgia's Agency of Protected Areas show a 50 percent increase in reported incidents of poaching between 2014 and 2017 - although it's not clear whether this figure represents an increase in poaching, or an increased rate of patrolling and arrests.

Illegal Logging and Fuel Wood Removal 

Illegal logging for fuel and timber is the infraction most commonly observed in BKNP (112 out of 150 infractions recorded in 2017). This typically happens during the night and is concentrated in a few hotspots on the Borjomi site of BKNP and Nedzvi Managed Reserve. Fortunately, there no longer is large-scale deforestation or clearing since 2012.

56 BKNP Park Rangers protect over 200,000 acres of mountainous deep forest parkland.

Poachers kill endangered wildlife year around using dogs and high power rifles in the park.

Early cameras were provided by Caucuses Nature Fund for capturing wildlife and poachers in the forest.

Tourism is growing providing critical jobs to reduce pressure for local communities to hunt wildlife.

Hunting from the days of the Tsar and Romanov Dynasty began the destruction of Bojomi wildlife populations in the 19th Century, setting a precedent for local communities to continue wildlife poaching in the Bojomi Naitonal Park.

The grant agreement was signed between the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture, Agency of Protected Areas and the Global Conservation Fund (GC) in the Administration of Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park.