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

At the Ministerial roundtable meeting held in Astana, Kazakhstan, the high-level representatives discussed possibilities for forest landscape restoration in Caucasus and Central Asia countries. Georgian Delegation was headed by the Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Solomon Pavliashvili. Ambassador of Georgia to the Republic of Kazakhstan, Zurab Abashidze attended the event. Georgia is taking more responsibility at the international level to restore forest landscapes- was noted at the meeting. The participants of the Ministerial meeting discussed crucial issues regarding, restoration of forest landscapes, thus related national and regional experience, forest restoration funding etc. Special attention was paid to the obligations taken by Parties.

Under the plan, Georgian authorities will plant trees on 1500 hectares by the year 2030, furthermore, natural regeneration will take place on 7,500 hectares of forest to improve recovery of forest structure and accelerate re-establishment of forest cover- said Solomon Pavliashvili while addressing the audience.

The draft resolution was approved by the contracting parties, which implies: identification, restoration and depletion of degraded lands by the year 2030, as well as assessment of the national potential for restoration of forest landscapes.

Solomon Pavliashvili personally met with the Director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Nature Based Solutions Group, Stewart Maginnis and other representatives.

The event was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the UNECE, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and with the support of the Federal Government of Germany.