The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP) in Georgia opens call for project proposals, addressing the following strategic initiatives in accordance to the County Programme Strategy: Community-based conservation of threatened ecosystems and species; Sustainable agriculture and fisheries, leading to food security; Low-carbon energy access co-benefits and Catalyzing sustainable urban solutions.

The target landscapes/seascapes for OP7 in Georgia in which most of OP7 grant-making will be focused remain the same as those for OP6 as decided by the SGP National Steering Committee. The rationale for this decision was mainly the fact that the national priorities remained largely unchanged in respect of different parts of the country and no significant changes were noted with regard to the criteria that were originally used for selecting those landscapes/seascapes for OP6.

The target landscapes/seascapes were originally selected through an extensive process of stakeholders consultations. The process included meetings and discussions with (i) members of the SGP National Steering Committee, (ii) the Focal Points of the Rio conventions, (iii) representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection (MoENRP) (Presently MEPA) and relevant non-governmental organizations and (iv) coordinators of relevant on-going projects and programmes.

The following criteria were applied during the preliminary selection process and later by the CPS project team to finalise the list of proposed landscapes/seascapes:

• Conservation value, vulnerability and challenges;
• Ecosystem services and the level of dependency of local communities on those services;
• National priorities;
• Co-financing potential for SGP initiatives.

Strategic Initiatives

General SGP Georgia country programme niches by SGP OP7 strategic initiatives are as following:

• Community-based conservation of threatened ecosystems and species
  • Improve management effectiveness of protected areas with increased community participation
  • Improved community-led biodiversity-friendly natural resource use practices and approaches, including agriculture, fisheries, forestry, tourism, infrastructure, etc.
  • Enhanced community-led actions for threatened species conservation, including addressing humanwildlife conflicts.
  • Access and benefit sharing of genetic resources, particularly in support of local’s traditional knowledge and customary rights.
• Sustainable agriculture and fisheries, leading to food security
  • Increased efficiency and effectiveness of overall environmentally sound food production and value chain, including certification schemes of organic agriculture, fair trade, and others;
  • Agrobiodiversity conservation, including extending support to producer networks, movements and value chains among small-holder farmers
  • Promotion of agro ecological production methods, including diversification and improved livelihoods; and
  • Community-based sustainable fisheries, including promotion of traditional fisheries practices and knowledge
  • Implement community-based actions to remove deforestation from supply chain and expand restoration of degraded lands.
• Low-carbon energy access co-benefits
  • Promotion of renewable and energy efficient technologies providing socio-economic benefits and improving livelihoods, including innovative and catalytic financing.
  • Support off-grid energy service needs in rural and urban areas.
• Catalyzing sustainable urban solutions
  • Improved capacities to promote community-driven, socially inclusive and integrated solutions to address low-emission and resilient urban development by strengthening capacities of key service providers at the local municipality level to promote community-driven and integrated solutions to address low-emission and resilient urban development.
  • Demonstrate innovative socially-inclusive urban solutions/ approaches (including waste and chemical management, energy, transport, watershed protection, ecosystem services and biodiversity).
  • Promote public-private partnership approach for low carbon energy access for marginalized urban communities.

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