governance of camili (macahel) biosphere reserve...

Biological Diversity andNatural Resources ManagementProject

Governance of Camili (Macahel)Biosphere Reserve Turkey

Biological Diversity andNatural Resources

Management Project

• Camili is situated in the Black Sea region, inthe north east of Turkey, in Artvin, Borcka.The nearest district, Borcka, is 45 km. awayand the area is on the Georgian border. Thealtitude of the region varies between 400-3500 m and the total size of the area is25,274.58 hectares.

• The area consists of six villages with apermanent population of 1213 (268households).


Management Project

• The region is special with its old growth forests, temperate rainforests and extensive alpine and subalpine ecosystems.

• The conservation targets areGenetically pure Caucasian beeBrown Bear (Ursus arctos)ChamoisCaucasian Black GrouseBrown Trout (Salmo trutta macrostigma)Caucasian ViperCaucasian SalamenderOrganic AgricultureLocal architecture and culture


Management Project

There are two Strict Nature Reserves in thearea designated in 1998 managed under theauspices of the Ministry of Environment andForestry according to the National Parks Law.

The area is designated a biosphere reserveon June 2005 and it is the first biospherereserve in Turkey.


Management Project

The forested areas outside the Strict NatureReserves are managed by the local authority of theGeneral Directorate of Forestry according to ForestryLaw.

The site was designated as a genetic reserve in 2001in recognition of the pure Caucasian bee race by theMinistry of Agriculture.

The rangelands and highland meadows are under themanagement responsibility of Ministry of Agriculturein accordance with Rangeland Law.


Management Project

•Important Forest Area

WWF – Turkey has identified KarçalMountains due to presence of mixedtemperate rainforests with pristine old-growth communities including orientalspruce, oriental beech, sweet chestnutand Caucaus lime tree.

•Important Plant Area

WWF – Turkey has identified KarçalMountains due to presence of overallbotanical richness and presence ofthreatened habitats and globalythreatened species

•Important Bird Area on the migratory corridor important for breeding raptors

Camili Biosphere Reserve


Management Project

CAMILI BIOSPHERE RESERVE

•1998 Efeler and GorgitStrict Nature Reserves

• 2005 BiosphereReserve

CAMILI ZONING MAP

GEF-II Biological Diversity and Natural ResourcesManagement Project

• “Biodiversity and Natural ResourceManagement” project is carried out between2000-2007. The budget of the project is 11.5million $.

• The aim of the project is to develop asustainable management of the protectedareas and natural resources with an efficient,sustainable, multi-sectoral and participatoryplanning method. The secondary aim of theproject is to form a basis to replicate similarstudies in other protected areas in Turkey.


Management Project

• The project areas were selected by theNational Biodiversity Committee and theywere selected to represent the 4biogeograhical regions of Turkey.

• The institution in charge of the project isMinistry of Environment and ForestryDirectorate of National Parks. It acts incoordination with the other DGs of theMinistry and with the Ministry of Culture andTourism.

PROJECT AREAS AND CAMILI BIOSPHERERESERVE

Management Plan

Management Plan

Themanagementplanconservationtargets and thevision arenegotiated withthe localpeople.

Management Plan

Small GrantsProjects

Changes in governance over the last 100 years

• In 1921, during the War of Independence the borderis set between Turkey and Russia of the period.

• Internal migration to mostly Istanbul that started in1960s and continued until mid 90s.

• The removal of the requirement to obtain militarypermit for Turkish citizens in 2004.

• The discovery of the pure Caucasian bee race andbiodiversity of the region by scientists and TEMAFoundation in 1998. This lead to the declaration ofStrict Nature Reserves.

• The traditional forms of governance about naturalresources did not change with other political impacts.

CAMILI VILLAGES Change in Population

12135.52128440.36215334.813303Total

231-17.8619645.2535836.52564Uğur

2686.6228745.8553042.64924Maral

338.333670.7312357.14287Kayalar

2175.2422940.5238525.82519Efeler

283-0.7128140.0846923.24611Düzenli

18129.0125511.4628827.6398Camili

2002%1997%1990%1970Village

De jure or de facto

Camili Biosphere reserve is underboth de jure and de factomanagement.The forest area is under theauthority of Directorate of Forestryand the Two Strict NatureReserves are managed by theDirectorate of National Parks. InTurkey, the ownership of theforests bbelongs to the State bylaw.

Camili is also included in theWorld Network of BiosphereReserves.

The de facto management is thecenturies old traditional forest usesystem of the local people.

There always have existed a governancesetting on natural resource managementrooted in history and customary practice thatcontinues for centuries: The informal useand share of the forest by local people.

The most recent Forest Management Plan in2004 takes this system into consideration.

The forests in Turkey are officially andformally managed by the Directorate ofForestry Ministry of Environment andForestry.

3 local committees have been establishedlast year: bee-keeping, agriculture andlivestock and ecotourism.

A draft legislation for the participatorymanagement of the biosphere reserves isprepared but not yet approved.

Is the governance setting rooted in historyand customary practice or is it recentlyestablished?

Cross –scale governance system?

The draft biosphere reserves legislation brings a Local Biosphere Reserve Commission that also incudes the representatives of the local people.

Impact on the Conservation ofBiodiversity

The management plan tries toproject future threats.The main threats for Camili are theillegal hunting of the brown bearby the local people,the construction of new roads tothe pastures, the enlargement ofthe Borcka-Camili roadand the bark beetle coming fromGeorgia. Illegal hunting of brownbear still continues.

Stakeholder Groups benefiting from the management of natural resources

Stakeholder group How do they benefit?

Bee-keeping Committee They benefit since they will be more active indetermining the prices and in the marketing,labelling of the production.

Local NGOs NGOs can get subsidies for nature conservationactivities from various donor agencies. Often thesefunds are the basic income of the local NGOs.

Tour operators With the better management of naturalresources the number of tourists wouldincrease

Local pension owners,minibus drivers,handcraft producers,local guides.

They benefit since the number of touristswould increase.

After the border between Turkey and Russia (at that period) was set,the number of brown bears living in the border has increased. This isbecause there is no human entrance, interference in the region. No oneis allowed to pass through the border. So, we can say that changes ingovernance increased conservation of brown bears. Further to this, theincrease in internal migration starting from the 1960s that continued tillthe mid 1990s had also a positive effect on the conservation of thewildlife, especially the brown bear, Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) andthe Caucasian Black Grouse (Tetrao mlokosiewiczi).

Characteristics of governance thatpositively correlates with conservation ofbiodiversity and equity?

Another result of governance processes is the conservation ofCaucasian bee race. After the border is set, the area remainedin the north east of Turkey, remote, isolated and set apart fromits previous Centrum, Batumi. In addition to that the road to thenearest district Borcka is blocked 6 months because of heavysnow. These governance processes have added to the otherfactors that the Caucasian bee race can remain pure.

Another governance process that helped the conservation ofecosystems is obtaining the military permit for visitors to enterthe area. This permit was removed for Turkish citizens in 2004,but remains obligatory for foreign citizens. This requirement for apermit together with the difficulty to reach the area has helped tokeep the ecotourism activities on a modest level that resulted inthe ecosystems to remain undestroyed.

Effect of governance setting on theconservation of biodiversity

The internal migration affectsconservation negatively sincethe migrants require new roadsto be constructed to thepastures to ease their shortvisits and also the migrants aremore conservative to somechanges than the local people.

Characteristics of governance thatpositively correlates with conservation ofbiodiversity and equity?

Tourism is now at a very low level, but the area is becoming better known. TheBNRM project has encouraged the development of more visitor accommodationin the area and tour operators are interested in providing more visits andactivities. Local people have so far been positive about tourism.

There are concerns about increased pressure on the Camili ecosystems and thelocal culture by tourism. Uncontrolled and demand led tourism has the potentialto harm what is so special about Camili; its biodiversity and landscape, itsculture and traditions. Continued development of tourism and recreation in thearea therefore requires an extremely cautious approach, that avoids mistakesmade by other natural areas that have become degraded due to overuse.

External threat to conservation ofbiodiversity and equity

The area is government managed protected area.However, when the Management Plan and the draftbiosphere reserves legislation is approved andbecome official the area will have a sharedgovernance co managed protected area with afunctioning local biosphere reserve commissionconsisting of representatives of local people andstakeholders.

So, we are now in a period of transition in terms ofgovernance.

Characteristics of governance that positivelycorrelates

with conservation of biodiversity and equity?


Management Project

The general policy is to enable continued natural resource use forlocal use, to avoid any increase in grazing intensity, but to improveits productivity, and to seek opportunities to increase the efficiencyand output of products that can be marketed to visitors and soldoutside. In particular there is real potential for increasing honeyproduction within sustainable limits and to find markets for otherwild products.

Obtaining organic certificate for the whole area is an importantpolicy so that everyone can benefit from the additional profits.

Receiving an entrance fee from the visitors and distributing itequally to the local people living in the biosphere reserve would beanother policy to support promotion of conservation of biodiversityand equity.

Policies and forms of support that promotes the conservation of biodiversity and equity

There are severe discrepancies between the 6 villages in Camili in termsof representation, being informed about the changes in governance. Somevillages that are geographically further away and difficult to reach havelack of information, misinformation and disinformation about the processand changes in the governance about natural resources, namely, protectedarea categories, management plan, zoning and biosphere reserve. So, ahuge inequality exists in governance at Ugur and Maral villages.However, since Camili village is the central village, it is involved more inthe processes and changes in governance about natural resources. Thenegotiation of the management plan and zoning meetings are held in thisvillage as well. So, this discrepancy between villages should be overcomewhich is very difficult because of geographical obstacles.


To promote conservation and equity in the area, intense capacity buildingprograms should be implemented on building negotiation andcommunication skills of the local people, so that they are able to representthemselves.

In addition, participation of women in the 3 committees and in the localbiosphere reserve commission should be encouraged by various methods.

Further, the participation of young people in these three committeesmentioned above and in the Local Biosphere Reserve Commission shouldbe encouraged.


Biological Diversity andNatural Resources Management Project

Ministry of Environment and ForestryDirectorate of Nature Protection and National ParksBiological Diversity and Natural Resources ManagementProject CoordniatorshipSöğütözü Cad. 14 / E, B Blok Kat:14Beştepe 06560 AnkaraT: (312) 207 58 82F: (312) 207 59 81E-mail: [email protected]

Biological Diversity andNatural Resources Management Project

Camili Project Application UnitOrman İşletme Müdürlüğü

Gündoğdu Mah.Borçka Artvin

T: (466) 415 13 03F: (466) 415 10 71

E-mail: [email protected]

Thank you.

governance of camili (macahel) biosphere reserve...

Documents