Feasibility assessment for a World Heritage nomination of the Colchic Forests and Wetlands under the natural criteria

Georgia has been a Party to the World Heritage Convention since 1992, and has acknowledged the importance of a natural or mixed World Heritage nomination. This is reflected in national legislation and plans, such as the Law of Georgia on the System of Protected Areas (1996), the 2014 National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan of Georgia and the 2012 Ecoregional Conservation Plan. In spite of this, and in spite of the fact that Georgia also belongs to one of WWF’s 35 „priority places“ (WWF 2017) and overlaps with two of Conservation International’s 34 global „biodiversity hotspots“, no sites have been nominated as natural or mixed UNESCO World Heritage properties by Georgia to date. There are, however, three cultural sites. Various actors have explored a possible nomination of natural World Heritage sites in Georgia since 2002. As a result, the Colchic Forests and Wetlands and Central Caucasus were selected as the most promising sites for possible nomination. A property “Colchis Wetlands and Forests” was entered on the Tentative List of Georgia in 2007. More recently, a scoping study for the Central Caucasus Cluster was carried out by WWF Caucasus in 2015. The need for a similar study for the Colchic Forests and Wetlands site was recognized by the Government of Georgia. Consequently, funding for the project “Feasibility assessment for a Colchis World Heritage site” was granted to the Michael Succow Foundation by the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in 2016. Cofunding was provided by WWF Caucasus and the Ludolf-Andreas Stiftung (Germany). The goal of this study – and of a potential resulting nomination – is to strengthen the conservation of Colchic forest and wetland ecosystems with their biodiversity, particularly threatened and endemic species, through enhanced international recognition and national/ local support. The Colchic area wraps around the southeastern coast of the Black Sea, extending from the Melet River near Ordu in Turkey to the northwestern border of Abkhazia Autonomic Republic in Georgia. Its warmtemperate and very humid climate and bio-geographical setting enable the existence of characteristic forest and wetland ecosystems, including extensive temperate rainforests and peatlands of a unique functional type. The Colchic Forests and Wetlands are part of the Caucasus ecoregion and of the Black Sea basin. They are also part of the neighboring ecoregions of Euxine-Colchic broadleaf and Caucasus mixed forests within the Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests biome of the Palaearctic Realm (Olson et al. 2001). As a result of a site visit, national expert and stakeholder consultations, mapping and literature studies, the Consultant has identified 13 potential component areas that could contribute to a Colchic World Heritage site, in various spatial configurations including only forests, only wetlands, or both. These potential component areas are nested within seven protected areas. Further analysis of the suitability of the various possible component areas has revealed a serial nomination of the Colchic Forests and Wetlands under World Heritage criteria ix and x as the most appropriate and promising scenario for a Colchic nomination. This nomination would consist of 11 to 13 proposed component areas, which would be parts of the following Protected Areas: Machakhela National Park, Mtirala National Park, Kintrishi Protected Areas, Kobuleti Protected Areas, Kolkheti National Park, as well as potentially Ajameti Managed Reserve and Borjomi- Kharauli National Park. A serial property consisting of these proposed component areas would have a total area of up to 42,931 ha, with an additional total buffer zone area of 34,481 ha. These values are preliminary as they are based on assumptions about the final zoning of Machakhela National Park, which is still under negotiation between the Agency of Protected Areas of Georgia and local stakeholders, and subject to changes depending on which areas are finally included. Based on a description of the landscapes, ecosystems and biodiversity of the Colchic Forests and Wetlands, three attributes of likely Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) relevant to World Heritage criterion ix and another three attributes relevant to World Heritage criterion x have been identified by the Consultant. The attributes relevant to World Heritage criterion ix include (1) functional ancient peatlands and Colchic forests (including refugial and old growth forests) with their succession, patch dynamics and zonation, (2) long-term evolution and diversification of flora and fauna in a glacial refuge area, starting from the Tertiary and continuing today, and (3) origin, development and regeneration of percolation bogs, the simplest type of peat mire which only occurs there. Together with the Hyrcanian forests in Azerbaijan and Iran, the Colchic forests with their associated wetlands are the oldest forests in Western Eurasia in terms of origin and evolutionary history, and the most diverse in terms of relict and endemic woody species and tree diversity. Of additional importance is the occurrence of percolation bogs, i.e. bogs (mires only fed by rain) without a clear acrotelm and with predominantly vertical water flow, which consequently do not develop explicit surface patterning. The attributes or likely OUV relevant to World Heritage criterion x include (1) the overall species richness, (2) the richness of endemic species and glacial relict species, and (3) the importance of the area for globally threatened species. The proposed component areas of the series are home to almost 1,100 species of vascular plants, and almost 500 species of vertebrates, plus an unknown but high number of invertebrate species. There are 155 vascular plant species with a restricted range, and more than 100 globally threatened or near threatened species in total. Based on a comparison of the Colchic Forests and Wetlands to other deciduous broadleaf forests of the South-Euro-Siberian plant-geographical Region and the corresponding East-North-American and the Sino- Japanese Regions in the nemoral zone of the Holarctic Realm, as well as to comparable peatlands, the study concludes that the proposed attributes of likely OUV would likely be sufficient to support the OUV of the series. However, some further analysis is needed in relation to both relevant World Heritage criteria. In terms of integrity, the proposed component areas contain the main features corresponding to the attributes of likely OUV under World Heritage criteria ix and x and are of adequate size to conserve most of them, although this needs to be reviewed for two relatively small proposed component areas within Machakhela National Park once its final zoning is known. The current pressures to the integrity of the series are considered significant but still acceptable with added management and protection efforts. At the same time, a number of potential threats (including development of transport and tourism infrastructure as well as peat extraction) would seriously threaten the integrity of some proposed component areas. The proposed series consists of parts of legally designated protected areas which correspond almost exclusively to IUCN PA management categories Ia (Strict Nature Reserve) and II (core zones of National Parks), with one proposed component area also including parts of the visitor zone of Mtirala National Park. The buffer zones are also designated as protected areas, including less strict categories. All proposed component areas have management plans either already in place, or under preparation. Existing management plans are being implemented, although there is room for the improvement of some management aspects. While the described serial approach to the configuration of the Colchic Forests and Wetlands is justified from a technical perspective, this is ultimately at the discretion of the State Party of Georgia. There is also potential for future extensions including additional Georgian and Turkish component areas.