Javakheti Protected Area: Georgia’s top birdwatching destination

Birdwatchers and fishing enthusiasts from all over the globe are encouraged to visit a protected area in southern Georgia.

A new Visitors Centre opened at the Javakheti Protected Area yesterday, offering tourists birdwatching, fishing and horse riding opportunities and information about camping areas and local hikes.

Javakheti Protected Areas. Photo from Georgia's Environment Ministry Facebook page.

Javakheti’s mountain grasslands are nestled on Georgia’s borders with Armenia and Turkey. The area harbors five out of the eight largest lakes in Georgia.

Listed as one of Birdlife International’s Important Bird Areas, the Javakheti Plateau is rich with important bird species; here you can find velvet scoter, ruddy shelduck, ferruginous duck, corncrake, dalmatian and white pelicans, marsh and terek sandpipers, great black-headed gulls, gull-billed terns, white-winged terns, white storks, wryneck, goshawk and white-throated dipper.

Javakheti Protected Areas. Photo from Georgia's Environment Ministry Facebook page.

Hikers climbing up the volcanic mountains of Javakheti will be rewarded with a good chance of seeing a crimson-winged finch and radde’s accentor.

Javakheti became a protected area in 2011. About 16 000 hectares of land developed into a National Park, which consisted of numerous wetlands including Madatapa, Bugdasheni, Khanchali, Kartsakhi and Sulda lakes.

Javakheti Protected Areas. Photo from Georgia's Environment Ministry Facebook page.

Javakheti Protected Areas. Photo from Georgia's Environment Ministry Facebook page.

The higher areas of the National Park are among the coldest places in the country. The land is characterized by a dry continental climate and a low average temperature. In winter Javakheti lakes often freeze for long periods of time.

Establishment of the Javakheti National Park was supported by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) together with the German Development Bank (KFW) and the South Caucasus Office, along with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Javakheti Protected Areas. Photo from Georgia's Environment Ministry Facebook page.