Tbilisi: Kakha Kakabadze, the deputy minister of Environment protection and agriculture met the heads of the regional forest services office. At the meeting the minister reviewed the reports of works completed in the last six months.
The National Forestry Agency is the main body of forest management in the Republic of Georgia. The agency was established to make specified efforts in forest restoration, improvement of forest sanitary conditions, forest inventory, and preparation of management plans.
The agency also hosted many events to apprise the public about the new forest code that just came into effect. This will authorise the public to access to wood resources . Moreover under this project 55 “business yards” have been set up in the country and 16 “business cards” will be organized by the end of 2024 in different regions of the country.
The agency has updated the area of more than 700 thousand hectares under its direct management and ten-year forest management plans have been prepared. It is also crucial to know that forest registration works are currently being carried out in 6 different municipalities of 4 regions of Georgia.
These municipalities included the Kvareli, Telavi, Tianeti, Oni, Tsageri, and Ozurgeti a total area of 265,843 hectares after which forest management plans will be developed for the next 10 years.
Similalrly the agency has developed a targeted three-month program for training qualified young personnel for forest inventory work. In 2019-2024, 62 young people with forestry education were trained and employed in forest inventory work across the country.
The National Forestry Agency has prepared a long-term forest restoration plan. According to that plan, forest restoration works will be carried out on an area of 20,000 ha until 2030. By the end of 2024 forest restoration measures will be implemented on an area of 2286 hectares in regions like Imereti, Shida Kartli, Kvemo Kartli, Guria, Racha-Lechkhum Kvemo Svaneti, and Kakheti.
As far as the issue of illegal logging and transportation is concerned the agency has detected many cases of forest code violations caused by the installation of illicit logging units.
