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A Case Study on Zemo Svaneti, Georgia

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Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture SLE Publication Series Strategic Options towards Sustainable Development in Mountainous Regions A Case Study on Zemo Svaneti, Georgia The SLE team: Eric Engel (Teamleiter), Henrica von der Behrens, Dorian Frieden, Karen Möhring, Constanze Schaaff, Philipp Tepper, Ulrike Müller, Siddharth Prakash In cooperation with: Rusudan Barkalaia, Giorgi Gigauri Mestia / Berlin, Dezember 2006 Centre of Advanced Training in Rural Development Foreword i Schriftenreihe des SLE (Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung) SLE Publication Series (Centre for Advanced Training in Rural Development) Herausgeber / SLE Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung Editor (Centre for Advanced Training in Rural Development) Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Sitz: Hessische Straße 1-2, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany E-Mail: [email protected] Internet: www.agrar.hu-berlin.de/sle www.berlinerseminar.de Redaktion / Karin Fiege Managing Editor SLE - Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung Druck / PPMDW Präsentation Plus Printing Märkische Druck- und Werbeproduktionsgesellschaft mbH Landsberger Str. 263 12623 Berlin (Mahlsdorf) Vertrieb / Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung Distributors Hessische Straße 1-2, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin 1. Auflage 2006 / 1-120 1st edition 2006 Copyright 2006 by SLE - Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung (Centre for Advanced Training in Rural Development) ISSN 1433-4585 ISBN 3-936602-28-X Titelbild / View of Mestia Cover photo (by Philipp Tepper) Foreword i Foreword The Centre for Advanced Training in Rural Development (Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung, SLE) at the Humboldt University in Berlin has trained young professionals in the field of German and international development cooperation for more than forty years. Consulting projects conducted on behalf of German and international cooperation organisations form part of the one-year postgraduate course. In multidisciplinary teams, young professionals carry out studies on innovative future-oriented topics, and act as consultants. Including diverse local actors in the process is of great importance here. The outputs of this “applied research” are an immediate contribution to the solving of development problems in rural areas. Throughout the years, SLE has carried out over a hundred consulting projects in more than sixty countries, and regularly published the results in this series. In 2006, SLE teams completed studies in Georgia, Ghana, Mozambique, and Nicaragua, all of which dealt with topics relevant to the most recent discussions in international cooperation. The present six-month study was commissioned by and conducted in cooperation with the Centre for Training and Consultancy (CTC), Tbilisi. The research is part of the pilot phase of the CTC intervention in Zemo Svaneti financed by the German Church Development Service (EED) aiming at rural development of Zemo Svaneti. The consultancy team was composed of one environmental scientist, one geo- ecologist, one forestry scientist, one social anthropologist, one political scientist (all participants of the 44th course of SLE), one social anthropologist and geographer (team leader) as well as one cattle breeding specialist and one forestry scientist (both Georgian counterparts). Prof. Dr. Otto Kauffmann Carola Jacobi-Sambou Dean Director Agricultural Horticultural Faculty Centre for Advanced Training in Rural Development ii Acknowledgements Acknowledgements This study is based on the enormous assistance provided by many people in Georgia and Germany supporting the research team with their ideas, feedback and practical help. Not all of them can be named here, but we hope that those not mentioned know how much we appreciated their help and enjoyed the time spent together. This holds in particular true for the population of Zemo Svaneti who received us with great friendliness, responded patiently to interviews and participated in group discussions, who integrated us into their lives, hopes, and worries and who showed us around their fantastic mountain region. We strongly hope that our work will contribute to improve living conditions of the population of Zemo Svaneti. We owe special thanks to CTC, in particular to Merab Khergiani and Nino Ratiani of the Mestia office as well as to Pavle Tvaliashvili, project coordinator for CTC Zemo Svaneti in Tbilisi. Their never-ending patience, assistance in logistical matters, and support during the field phase as well as their great humour and art of reception helped us to find our way into Svan society. Our gratitude also goes to Irina Khantadze, director of CTC, as well as to Matthias Valentin, board member of CTC, for their feedback and guidance. George “Malinki” Eliozov secured the teams’ connection with the (home)world – we would like to express our special appreciation to him. During the preparation in Germany, we were introduced to peculiarities of Zemo Svaneti by the precious consultancy of Rolf and Brigitta Schrade as well as Jan Koehler. Theo Rauch and Kurt Peters accompanied the mission with their expertise on rural development and animal husbandry. The list of Georgian and international organisations which supported us is too long to be displayed here in full length. We are particularly indebted to Günther Fichtner of Friedrich Ebert Foundation South Caucasus for his suggestions and feedback, to Knut Gerber of GTZ Tbilisi for his permanent help, as well as to Nina Shatberashvili of REC Caucasus for their practical support to understand the state of community development projects in mountain regions of Georgia. All other agencies and people we met can be assured our gratitude for generously sharing their project designs, strategic visions, and practical experience. In Mestia district, we owe gratitude to the local administration for their willingness to support our study and their cooperation in the research process. We whish Vakhtang Nakani of Mestia sakrebulo, Muradi Ushkhvani, deputy gamgebeli as well as Tengo Pangani of Tsvirmi, Carl Sagliani of Tskhumari, Zhuzhuna Gurchiani of Chuberi and Zozo Gvarmiani of Nakra all the best for their communities and future work as well as to their families. Shota Chartolani in Mestia, Teimuraz Nijaradze in Ushguli, and Acknowledgements iii Bachuki Gvarmiani in Nakra were of enormous help as resource persons and for organising events in their respective communities. Particular gratitude goes to Nato Gvarliani, Ana Girgvliani, and Natia Zhorzholiani for their capacities as Svan- Georgian-English interpreters and their facilitation skills during the working process. They have helped us to open a lot of doors and hearts. The research team cooperated closely with the cattle breeding expert Rusudan Barkalaia and the forester Giorgi Gigauri who greatly contributed to the study with their dedication during the preparation phase and their expertise during research. To them as well as to Zoya Goshteliani, our host and entrance door to the joys and hardships of daily life in Zemo Svaneti goes our deepest thanks and friendship. We would like to express our gratitude to EED in Bonn and Tbilisi for supporting CTC in financing the research. Gerlind Melsbach of EED Tbilisi helped with background information and provided valuable feedback, thus setting the base for the study and its results. Last but not least, we want to thank Gabriele Beckmann of SLE for continuous backstopping and precious comments. iv How to Read this Report How to Read this Report This report gathers the results of a three-month field research on economic development potentials in Zemo Svaneti, Georgia. It is directed to a broad range of readers, such as local population in Zemo Svaneti interested in getting active in development, government actors in Georgia, current development actors in Zemo Svaneti, future development actors in Zemo Svaneti, and CTC as the commissioner of this study. For all those, we want to give at hand a guideline how this report can be used. A Georgian version of this report shall be shortly available with CTC. If you are living in Zemo Svaneti and interested in getting active for development in your region, this report can serve as a pool of ideas, possibly stimulating or complementing own ideas. It may also serve as an instrument for lobbying with possible donors for supporting local ideas and projects. It then makes sense to take a short look at the problems in Chapters 2.3.2 (p. 30), 2.4.3 (p. 35), 2.5.2 (p. 38), 2.7.2 (p. 43), 2.8.2 (p. 47), 2.9.2 (p. 53). They should sound quite familiar to you. So you can quickly move on to the given conclusions in Chapters 2.6 (p. 39), 2.7.4 (p. 45), 2.8.4 (p. 51), 2.9.4 (p. 56) for comprehensive recommendations; you might also have a closer look at detailed sector-related recommendations at Chapter 3 (p. 57). For donors from outside Zemo Svaneti or even Georgia, it might be also important to have a look at the baseline data which is presented in Chapters 1.23), 2.3.1 (p. 23), 2.4.1 (p. 33), 2.4.2 (p. 34), 2.5.1 (p. 37), 2.7.1 (p. 40), 2.8.1 (p. 46), 2.9.1 (p. 51) and more in detail in the Annex and on CD-Rom available with CTC in Tbilisi. If you are a government actor in Georgia and are or want to get involved in development activities in Zemo Svaneti, you may benefit from the recommendations related to your respective sector (see Chapter 3.1, p. 57). For data substantiating these, have a look at Chapter 3.2 (p. 58) for agriculture, Chapter 3.8 (p. 66) for forestry, Chapter 3.9 (p. 70) for tourism, and Chapter 3.10 (p. 74) for disasters. When reckoning if to include donors in your strategy, baseline data (Chapter 1, p. 1, Chapter 2, p. 18 and Annex) is also helpful. If you are currently active in Zemo Svaneti, the baseline data might help you to substantiate project proposals, and recommendations, in the strategic options (Chapter 3.12, p. 81) as well as sector-related, could complement your own ideas and give you a hint where to look for cooperating partners.
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