Open-Air Knowledge Exchange: Georgian CBOs Gather in Adigeni

Georgian community leaders share hands-on conservation and development practices.

A gentle breeze tugged at caps and shirts of men with weathered hands and folded arms as they listened intently to the speaker in the centre of the group. Gathered on a grassy slope in Adigeni, Georgia, these men are community leaders from rural Georgian villages, and they are here to learn from each other. This kind of learning doesn’t belong in the classroom or boardroom; this is learning in its purest form: face-to-face, in open-air with the dirt and grass beneath boots.

From July 26–27, 2025 the Eco-Corridors Fund (ECF) facilitated an exchange visit between community-based organizations (CBOs) in southern Georgia. The purpose was simple but powerful—to allow established CBOs in Adigeni to host and mentor newly formed CBOs from Adjara, specifically from the Khulo and Shuakhevi municipalities. A total of 23 participants spent two days together discussing successes, lessons learned and everything in between, all focused on community development and community-based nature conservation.

The visiting groups included seven CBOs from Khulo—Iremadzeebi, Zortikeli, Salomia, Savaneti, Pikala, Megobroba, and Satsikhuri—alongside three CBOs from Shuakhevi: Peranga, Tskhovelta Mtskalobeli, and Gidela. These were the students, eager to learn from their counterparts in Adigeni who have already been active in the ECF for years.

The learning wasn’t abstract. Badri Vashakmadze of the Naminauri CBO led the sessions and spoke about the nuts and bolts of running a CBO. His explanation was grounded in daily practice: how to manage finances, keep transparent annual reports, operate the innovative ECF Solidarity Schemes, and rotate the caretakers employed by the organization. He flipped through folders at a plastic table shaded by pine trees, the papers rustling in the breeze, while the visitors leaned in, listening, nodding, asking questions.

Knowledge transfer doesn’t happen through reports alone making this type of exchange so important. Seeing conservation activities on the ground in one community—how land-use agreements are negotiated, how funds are tracked, how responsibilities are shared—allows ideas to take root and progress to be made. The visit made space for experienced CBOs to become teachers, showing not only what worked but also where mistakes had been made and lessons learned.

Between formal discussions, the group shared laughter, food, and stories. Networking in rural Georgia is as much about the table as it is about the meeting and food and drink circulated along with the energy of hospitality and camaraderie. Thick hands—hardened by farming, logging, and years of mountain life—took turns turning the pages of reports and raising glasses for toasts.

The timing of the exchange was important with the intention that 13 new ECF Conservation Agreements being signed in October, throughout the Caucasus. The visiting CBOs left with tangible knowledge of how agreements are implemented, how accountability is maintained, and how the wider community benefits from collective effort.

The ECF’s role in fostering such exchanges is subtle but vital. By supporting communities to learn from one another, the project invests not only in conservation agreements but in relationships, trust, and local leadership. As the participants dispersed back to Khulo and Shuakhevi, they carried with them the reinforced notion that nature conservation and community development are strongest when they grow from the ground up.

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