Recently described as one of the world's forgotten landscapes, Eurasia's importance for global biodiversity is now being rediscovered. Fauna & Flora International (FFI) has been working in Eurasia for over 15 years and, with projects ranging from Portugal in the west, through to Romania in Eastern Europe and Georgia in the Caucasus, all the way east to the Central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the Eurasia programme represents an extremely diverse and sweeping body of work. Not surprisingly, as it seeks to strengthen the conservation of the regions biodiversity, it interacts with an equally diverse array of partners, government agencies and local stakeholders.
The Caucasus ecoregion hosts a rich biological and cultural diversity and contains unusually high levels of species endemism. It incorporates, in their entirety, the territories of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan and, in-part, those of Turkey and Iran as well as the southern reaches of the Russian Federation. It has been recognized as one of the world's 34 most biologically rich and threatened terrestrial ecosystems, is one of the Global 200 Ecoregions and one of three Endemic Bird Areas in Europe. It is also considered to be a world centre for agro-biodiversity and the origin of many of today's domestic plants and animals (and the purported birthplace of wine). FFI recently made the decision to formalize more than a decade's worth of projects and actions in the region with a specific and dedicated programme of work focusing on the Southern Caucasus.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s many parts of the region have experienced relatively rapid modernization in industrial, economic and legislative fields. However, the significant social and economic changes that resulted have led to widespread unemployment and an increase in dependence on natural resources in rural areas. Furthermore, poorly regulated and unsustainable hunting, an unstable legislative framework, and a growing but unregulated farming industry combine to increase the pressure on the region's natural landscape.
The decision to set up a regional office in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, will allow the small in-country team to expand its programme of work both geographically and thematically. In keeping with FFI's partnership approach, the office will continue to favour working in close partnership with local groups across the region whilst, where required and requested, supporting and building their capacity to deliver conservation in the long term. This process has already begun, with the expansion of human–carnivore conflict work, pioneered in Georgia, into Armenia, and an exploratory study of the extent and potential impact of wildlife trade in the region.
Based on the work that has been implemented to date, the programme has identified five initial priority areas with which to engage over the coming years: human–carnivore conflict, wildlife trade, protected area development, marine and coastal issues and threatened tree species (the latter with the Global Trees Campaign). One of the first actions of the Caucasus programme will be to carry out further scoping studies that will encompass Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In this way the team will develop a more detailed picture of biodiversity conservation in each country while emphasizing these five priorities. Ultimately, we hope that the presence of FFI in this emerging frontier of biodiversity conservation will act as a catalyst for enhanced global recognition of the region's value and increased international support for its conservation.
