Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia

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Otar Shamugia: "Ambitious reforms in almost all areas of environmental policy had begun after the signing of the Association Agreement in 2014''.

The candidate for the position of the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr.  Otar Shamugia, provided a brief overview of the outcomes of the measures implemented by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture and submitted future visions at the joint session of the Agrarian Issues, Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Sectoral Economy and Economic Policy, Regional Policy and Self-Government and Finance-Budget Committees.

According to Mr. Shamugia, ambitious reforms in almost all areas of environmental policy began after the signing of the Association Agreement in 2014. Out of the 27 environmental directives stipulated by the Association Agreement, legislative approximation has already been implemented with 20 legal acts, and work is underway to approximate 7 more.

" To support biodiversity conservation, Georgia has established 100 protected areas of various classifications, accounting for approximately 13.1% of the country’s territory. We actively continue to work in this direction and have already submitted the draft law on establishing the Guria National Park to the Parliament. This year, studies will be conducted on establishing protected areas in Samegrelo and Zemo-Svaneti regions and expanding the existing protected area in the Racha region.

 We continue to develop the ecotourism infrastructure in Georgia, including constructing up to 1,200 km of hiking hills and recreational infrastructure, which will be completed in 15 protected areas in 2024, and the government has already allocated more than GEL 30 million for this project. Moreover,  this year, new ecotourism infrastructure will be created in at least 10 locations, for which GEL 10 million will be allocated. As a result, 1,070,000 visitors were recorded in the protected areas of Georgia in 2023, which is a 19 percent increase compared to 2022," said Mr. Otar Shamugia.

In recent years, Georgia has adopted several fundamental laws, such as the Forest Code, laws on Environmental Liability, Aquaculture, Water Resources Management, and Industrial Emissions. At the end of 2023, the government approved the draft law on biological diversity, which has been submitted to the Parliament for further consideration.