Tbilisi: The Department of Environmental Supervision of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture is all set to tight control over the extraction, transportation and sale of trees and plants.
This strict rule will apply during the pre-New Year period in country.
As per direction of department, “During this period, the priority will be to eliminate the facts of illegal extraction of coniferous trees and plants in area facing challenges. At the same time the department employees will carry out enhanced monitoring throughout Georgia 24 hours a day.”
Similarly, the special emphasis is placed on regions with coniferous forests. In the capital city Tbilisi the areas surrounding the Sports Palace, railway station and metro stations are being actively checked, where coniferous trees and plants or branches are sold during the pre-New Year period.
It is worth to note that the legal extraction and sale of coniferous trees and plants is permitted only if they are obtained in nurseries, plantations, homestead plots or imported.
In addition, the seller must have an appropriate document confirming the legal ownership of the tree or plant.
If the coniferous plant is obtained on a privately owned plot of land or in an artificially grown nursery, a certificate of origin is required for transportation which is issued by the local municipality administration.
Notably a fine for illegal extraction, transportation and violation of the rules for the sale of coniferous plants is up to 2,000 GEL for the first time and in case of repetition it will be 5,000 GEL, to which is added the amount of damage caused to the environment.
If the amount of damage exceeds 1,000 GEL, the person is subject to criminal liability also.
The Department of Environmental Supervision calls on the population to contact the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture hotline number153 (without index, the call is free, anonymity is protected) in case of detecting a violation of the law, so that the department’s employees can respond immediately.
They urged all Georgian citizens to come forward to protect the natural resources of Georgia.
