Restoration of Forest Landscapes in the

Southern Caucasus

Hannes Neuner

Ilia Osepashvili WWF Caucasus Programme Office

Konya, 28.05.2012

The Southern Caucasus

• Armenia, Azerbaijan,

Georgia

• Total Area: 185,300

km2

• Forest Cover:

aprox. 20 % of total

area

Bioclimatic Regions

The Project

• Funding: The project was funded by the German Ministry

of Environment (BMU) via KfW within the

framework of International Climate Initiative (IKI)

• Implementation: WWF Caucasus and partners (WWF Armenia

WWF Azerbaijan, ATP, Forest Administrations)

from September 2008 – March 2011

• Total budget : 4.8 million Euro

• Approach: Restoration of natural Forest Landscapes in

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

Deforestation and Forest degradation

Root causes

• Energy crisis in the 90s

• (Often) illegal logging

• No sustainable Forestry

• Overgrazing

• Climate change

Objectives of the project

• Increase resilience of key

ecosystems to climate

change

• Restoration of Forest

Ecosystems in Azerbaijan,

Armenia and Georgia

• Reforestation with native

species

• Use of innovative planting

and seeding methods

• Training and awareness

raising

• Knowledgemanagment

Forest Landscapes to restore

Mountain forest in drylands •Armenia

Middle mountain forest •Georgia

Floodplain forest •Azerbaijan and Georgia

Project sites

Restoration strategy

Restoration steps

Site preparation

Site protection

Maintenance

Planting and

seeding

Planting tools

•Planting mattock

•Forest spade

•Planting spade

•Shovel

Standard

Practice

Angle notch

planting

Hole planting

with forest

spade

Hole planting

with planting

auger

Equipment costs low to

medium

medium medium high

Work progress low medium medium high

(Cost-)

Effectiveness

low high high medium

Demand on

planting material

low high

Root length

max. 12 cm

no container

plants

medium

Root length

max. 25 cm

medium

Root length

max. 35 cm

Investment in soil

preparation/Area

cleaning

medium to

high

medium medium medium

Ergonomic

acceptability

low to

medium

medium medium high

Drilling machine/

planting auger Comparison of four different planting practices

Results

Main figures

Total Restoration area 1415 ha

Full scale planting/seeding 870 ha

Enrichment planting/seeding 97 ha

Natural regeneration in ha 446 ha

Number of seedlings 2,6 Mio

Total seeds 7300 kg

Total length of fence 96 km

Natural border 17 km

Barbwire used 650 km

Cost /ha 3700 Euro

Results Azerbaijan

Results Armenia

Results Georgia

Documentation, Publications and

Products

• Forest Restoration

Guidelines in 4 languages

(ENG, AZ, ARM, GEO)

• Site Maps

• Adaptation strategy http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/bla

ck_sea_basin/caucasus/publications/?201989/for-

Responding-to-Impacts-of-Global-Climate-Change-on-

Forests-in-the-Southern-Caucasus

• Monitoring Tool – Site

templates

Forest Restoration guidelines

Adaptation Strategy (N. Zazanashvili, C. Montalvo)

Potential Forest Cover (here Oak-Pine)

Modeled Present

A2a model

B2a model

A2a = Surface temperature increase b/w 2.0 - 5.4 °C

B2a = Surface temperature increase b/w 1.4 - 3.8 °C

Monitoring tool

Site templates

• Project site description

• Climate Conditions

• Site conditions

• Vegetation

• Site history

• Project activities

• Site preparation, Site protection, Planting, Seeding, Maintenance

• Costs

• Survival rates

• Lessons learnt

Other project components / aspcets

• Participation of

Governmental institutions

and NGOs (e.G. ATP)

• Involvement of local

communities

• Creation of temporary jobs

• Training of workers

• Awareness raising

• Building capacity of forest

nurseries

Lessons learnt

• Development of optimal restoration strategy (e.g. Site

selection, species, restoration methods,…)

• Key measure: Fencing

• Use of potential of natural regeneration

• Existence (establishment) of tree nurseries is crucial for

high quality planting material

• Use of innovative tools and methods can increase quality

and effectiveness of restoration

• Maintenance activities assure sustainability of restoration

sites

• Importance of involvement of local population and

authorities

Other projects in dryland areas of the

Southern Caucasus

• BMU/GIZ: Climate-Tolerant

Rehabilitation of degraded

landscapes in Georgia

• BMZ/WWF: FLR and

sustainable range

management in dryland

areas of transboundary

region AZ/GEO (begin July

2012)

Thank you for your attention!