EuroEco 2010 Marta Tudela

1. Marelisi
Attempt to establish a new ecovillage
Marta Tudela

2. AGENDA
o Why Marelisi? (PAN parks support zone)
o What products you can find at Marelisi?
o Which ideas do we have for the village?
o WWF and PAN-parks
o The Eco-label issue and its alternatives
o What’s the opinion of the community?
o Any Question?

3. BKNP (Borjomi-Kharagauli NP)
The Borjomi-Kharagauli National
Park is located in central Georgia
and is part of the lesser Caucasus.
The park is one of the largest in
Europe - it covers more than 85,000
hectares of native forest and sub-
alpine and alpine meadows, home
to rare species of flora and fauna.

4. Why Marelisi?
 One of the main entrance points to the
BKNP (Train station to the principal land
connetion Baku-Batumi aprox. 4Km
away)
 There already exists a PAN-park
certified business and the owner takes
a proactive approach to the BKNP ideas
for the village.
 There exists too a variety of preserved
tradition on household products
 BKNP management will encourage
other projects in the surrounding region
based on the result of Marelisi
experience.

5. What products can you find?
Food products: Social & others:
• Bread • Special caucasian
singing and dancing
• Cheese and Matsoni
(yogurt art) • Bee & Horse-farms
• Honey • Monuments(Castle
ruins, old watermill)
• Chacha (homemade
vodka) and other • Tamada glasses
spirits
•Clay
•Non-alcoholic drinks
•Cests
(Edelberryjuice)
•Tekmari sauce
•Mais (Kukuruz)
•Feigen

6. EXPERIENCES
written info discussion, observation of participation in degustati purchase of
explanation the process the process on of the the traditional
produce produce
TRADITIONS
Honey making P E S S E I
Wine making P E S ? E I
Cheese/Yogurt P E E E E E
making
Bread baking P E E E E E
Water mills P E S S - P
Candle making P P P P P P
Carpentry P E P P - P
Mushroom P P P P P P
growing
Elder P P S P P P
brewerage
P=pendant E=existant S=seasonal I= to be improved

7. How you can experience the preserved
traditions on spot...
... by reading about the history and details of the
tradition from info-boards
... discussing the tradition with locals, who are
practising it (includes demonstration of tools and explanation
of process)
... observing the demonstration process done by locals
... participating (having hands-on experience) in the
process, consuming the self-made produce (in a week long
workshop)
... degustation of the products
... buying local products

8. Which ideas do we have for the village?
Bike-Taxi, Horse-carriage or renting bikes or horses,when the
weather conditions are optimal always counting with the actual taxi
service, between Marelisi and the station.
There will be selected 3-4 families and held special trainings for
capacity building in tourist services.
Create some flea-market huts in the points of the main road
adecuated for that, to sell the BKNP supported products
Contact the railwayservice to promote marelisi as ecological
destination.
There will be publihsed and distributed leaflets promoting honey
making tour in the National park region as well as in Tbilisi, within
incoming tour operators and international organizations.

9. Which ideas do we have for the village?
information for the web pages of Borjomi-Kharagauli national Park
and PAN Parks Foundation
Better signalisation on main road Kaxuri-Kutaisi.
There will be purchased special uniforms for beekeeping tour.
Information for the web pages of Borjomi-Kharagauli national
Park (BKNP) and PAN Parks Foundation
Different concepts adecuated for the different type of visitors
(next diashow)

10. Posible planned‘ scenario
1. Paid educational and degustation up to 1 day, Tour
participants would be accompanied by park guide, who would
provide overall information, guiding and if necessary translation, and
taken to the different locations of local producers, who would carry
out demonstrations, discussions, participation etc.
2. Free tour as addition to other touristic activities
basically the difference with the previous one is that the participants
already payed the BKNP activity fee and they will be informed of the
possibility to buy local products and guided to specific seasonal
offers.
3. Written information and product‘s sales basically
to short-time backpackers that come or go inside the park and it will
be establish at the certified PAN park business.
4. Workshop camps up to 1 week. More deep into
production methods and learning by doing principle.

11. WWF-
ecotourismus guidelines
 WWF is taking action to reduce negative impacts,
and to encourage responsible tourism that
enhances not only the quality of life, but also
natural and cultural resources in destinations.
“WWF-Netherlands and Molcaten founded PAN-
parks together in 1997, which works for the
protection, greater understanding and appreciation
of Europe’s wilderness areas. Local communities
have the possibility to become directly engaged. ”
“Guidelines for community-based ecotourism development”
WWF International

12. WWF-
ecotourismus guidelines
 Responsible tourism can help to generate
awareness of and support for conservation
and local culture, and create economic
opportunities for countries and communities.
“Guidelines for community-based ecotourism development”
WWF International

13. The eco-lable issue and its alternatives
 Packaging and labelling strategy of the local produce of
BKNP support zone is an important issue in terms of
marketing the produce and making it regionally
distinctive and attractive for the potential buyers (small,
feasable).
 It is important to provide products especially food items
in a packaging that is attractive, convenient and locally
distinctive.
 Legally BKNP cannot sell products. PAN Parks
trademark can be used and BKNP local produce label
should be designed in the form of stickers so that it can
be used with every local product sold through the
network.

14. The eco-lable issue and its alternatives
(problems)
 Locals don’t understand why they should sell in little
ammounts, while they actually sell more profitable to the
capital -> no freewilling investor
 The sounding of the necessity of the BKNP still poor in
the area, locals see visitors as menance and the main
local income used to be a wood fabric, while now
poaching is illegal.
 There is controversy if such products really need to be
marked as ecological or that the lable will just add an
extra-price to the sell makeing it not affordable.
 No sistematic study had been carried yet on the
suitability of the different lable sistems because of a lack
of fonds and personal in the BKNP.

15. The eco-lable issue and its
alternatives (solutions?)
Our proposal was to involve the local carpenters
to design a distinctive wood container in the
begining of the inicitative so as to make product
recognizable and to give real prespective to de
local people on the benefits they can get by
cooperating with the BKNP always as a
sustainable basis. Then in a second phase, a
eco-lable could be implemented.

16. Important Issues...
To implement a factible ecovillage, The BKNP needs to know...
... what actions are currently being taken at Marelisi, and by whom,
which are supporting or damaging the local enviroment?
... what type and level of incentive might be needed to change
actitudes in order to achive worthwhile conservation benefits? Will
the ecotourism in the area deliver this?
... encourage the communities themselves to be more directly
involved in conservation-> integrated approach to ecotourism
within the context of sustainable development
... which method is more effective to record feedback from visitors
and tour operators and to build on this.

17. What‘s the oppinion of the
community?
 The community is waiting for a big investor to set
up different ideas.
 The honey producers maschine cost 400 lari while in
soviet times costed 80 lari
 Till now their main market is to distribute the
honey throught their relatives
 One idea could be to charge a little more money
for the route and get a coffe or something similar
while arriving at the town after 2 days of trekking

18. Visit to the honey makers...

19. Especial Thanks to...
 Linda Romanovska, Natia Muladze and
Levan Tabunidze
 Gabriel Gaglio and Flavio Lafranconi
 Maxime and Ieva (GLEN 2010)
 Jaba, Gio and Inga
 Temur Magradze
 BKNP, GREEN-Borjomi, PAN parks and
GLEN

20. Thanks for your
time!