Tbilisi: The area of protected areas in Georgia will be undergoing an expansion phase as the Committee on Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of the Parliament of Georgia discussed three bills presented by the government’s legislative initiative on protected areas.
The bills were presented by the First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Nino Tandilashvili.
According to Article 14 of the Law on the System of Protected Areas, based on the demarcation results, the Parliament of Georgia takes a decision on the border change of the protected area.
That is why, the deputy minister presented to the committee for consideration in the first reading a draft law “on the creation and management of the Erusheti National Park” regarding the amendment of the Georgian law.
According to the explanation of the first deputy minister of environment protection and agriculture, the reason for the change is the reflection of the results of the demarcation of the boundaries of the Erusheti National Park in the law. As a result of the demarcation works carried out, the area of Erusheti National Park increased by 22 ha, i.e. from 11 385 ha to 11 407 ha.
The environment protection and natural resources committee discussed in the second reading a draft law on amendments to the Georgian law “on the creation and management of the protected area of Javakheti”.
According to Nino Tandilashvili, the aforementioned draft law reflects the results of the demarcation of the borders of Faravni Lake, Abuli Lake and Evening Lake. In accordance with the change, the areas and geographical coordinates of said prohibitions are determined.
In particular, the protected area of Faravni Lake was 3996 ha, the protected area of Abuli Lake was 240 ha, and the protected area of Evening Lake was 634 ha.
️In the draft law submitted in the second reading “on the status of protected areas” regarding the amendment of the law” the coordinates obtained as a result of demarcation works are reflected and the area of the Civ-Gombori protected area increased from 4935.8 ha with 73.2 ha and amounted to 5009 ha. Therefore, the total area of Mariamjvri protected areas increased and amounted to 6031.5 ha.
Since 2016, an important process of demarcation of protected areas has started and many protected areas have already been demarcated, which on the one hand, has helped the population to enjoy their property and on the other hand, real protected area boundaries have been inventoried and thus tourism infrastructure create an even more solid foundation emerges.
In all the discussed projects there is an increase in the area of protected areas, which clearly indicates an approach to how we treat our treasure, protected areas. The Committee on Environmental Protection and Natural Resources supported the proposed bills.
