June 4, 2001—The World Bank last week approved a Protected Areas Development Project in Georgia funded by a $8.7 million Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund Grant.

The grant seeks to conserve Georgian biodiversity through the creation of three ecologically and socially sustainable protected areas, and to build capacity for mainstreaming biodiversity conservation into the production landscapes that connect them.

"The Georgia Protected area program is a recognized national priority,"  says Phillip Brylski, the World Bank's Project Team Leader. "The support of senior government officials, including the president, as well as of NGOs assures a national long-term commitment to conserve and manage the Caucasus forest ecosystems. Moreover, the project will support international cooperation by developing an action plan for transboundary cooperation for managing protected areas and through support for an NGO network in the Caucasus region, including Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia, and Russia."

Georgia, a mountainous country covering 70,000 km2 with a population of 5.5 million people, is situated between the south slope of the Caucasus Mountains, the east coast of the Black Sea and the northern edge of the Turkish Anatolia plain. Forests cover 40 percent of the country, largely in the Greater Caucasus Mountains (Georgia's northern border), the Lesser Caucasus (its southern border), and in intervening lowlands and foothills. Since the transition, unsustainable timber harvesting, grazing, and game hunting have accelerated, and now pose a major threat to Georgia's rich and diverse biodiversity.

Since Georgia joined the World Bank in 1992 and the International Development Association (IDA) in 1993, the country has received a total of US$12.5 million in grants for three GEF projects to the country.

GEF is the designated financial mechanism for international agreements on biodiversity, climate change, and persistent organic pollutants. It also supports the work of global agreements to combat desertification and protect international waters and the ozone layer. GEF projects are executed by a wide range of public and private partners, including the World Bank.

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