Georgia: For the second reading, the Committee on Legal Affairs hastily considered the amendments to the Law on Administrative Offenses and the Law on Special Protection of Green Plants and the State Forest Fund within the borders of Tbilisi and the surrounding area.
According to Maia Bitadze, one of the bill’s initiators and the chairman of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, the legislative package introduces a new mechanism that envisages the imposition of sanctions in case the type of green plant can not be determined.
According to her, as per the current legislation, in particular, the Code of Administrative Offenses, there is a fine of 500 GEL for the arbitrary pruning of green plants and a fine of 1000 GEL for repeating the same action, and the proposed amendments include fines of 5,000 and 10,000 GEL, respectively.
“However, if significant damage occurs due to logging and often this significant damage exceeds 1000 GEL, in this case, after the calculation, criminal liability is automatically incurred. When the type of wood cannot be determined, in this case, it is very difficult to calculate the damage to the environment and, consequently, criminal liability will be incurred if the person commits the mentioned act for the third time,” said Maia Bitadze.
The proposed amendments also provide for the introduction of new regulations on the fact of issuing an incorrect conclusion on the qualitative assessment of green plants. According to the project, a fine of 10,000 GEL is envisaged for this action.
