From June 8th to 11th a regional workshop “The advantages of privately protected areas for community development and biodiversity preservation” took place. The workshop was attended by the representatives of partner organizations from Iran, Georgia, Kazakhstan and The IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands (IUCN NL).

One of the objectives of the meeting was to focus on the issues of biodiversity preservation in the region and to highlight the direct engagement of the target communities to this process. The participants of the workshop had an opportunity to exchange their accumulated experience in this field, to identify the current challenges of nature protections and to find up-to-date approaches to this issue. The meeting was also aimed to set the priorities of the South Caucasus regional biodiversity preservation and to discuss the possibilities for the cooperation between the regional countries and the stakeholders for the most endangered species and the preservation of the ecological corridors.

The participants also had a trip to the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge (CWR), got acquainted with the activities and the achieved results of the CWR.

At the end of the workshop the participants presented the best practices of their countries, the current challenges and the issues, the requirements for the legislation of this sphere. The participants were pleased to note that they were inspired by the achievements the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge reached during a short period of time and said that they look forward to an increased cooperation.

The project is funded by the Dutch Otterfund.