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The Government of Georgia adopts the “Rule on Forest Use”
Today, the session of the Government of Georgia adopted the “rule on forest use”; the respective by-law has been fully harmonized with the new “Forest Code” adopted by the Parliament of Georgia in May 2020, and entailing sustainable management principles of forest. The new “rule on forest rule” has determined legislative mechanisms on sustainable management and use of forests, which will safeguard sustainable use of Georgia’s forest resources upon enhancing, as well as improvement of characteristics, protection and maintenance of ecological worth of forests. Access of local dwellers, public and business sectors to the forest resources will be enhanced, both – timber (materials, wood), as well as non-timber materials, which are transformed into producing alternative and ecological energy resources (briquettes, pallets); these also complements to decreasing impact on forests. Moreover, access to forest resources will be handled in a fully open and transparent process, which implies that production of wood and timber materials will only be provided by forest management bodies, who will process these with a special rule and allocate at storages (so called “business yards”), which will operate at each and every municipality nationwide. Realization of forest resources will be processed upon an auction rule (mostly with regard to high quality, so called – material timber), as well as direct procurement (wood and forest waste).Determining special types of forest use is the highlight of the respective rule. These types are non-timber resources of forest, products processed of timber plants and secondary materials produces by wood. Prior to adopting the new rule on forest use – utilizing the above-mentioned resources for commercial use had been prohibited. The new rule and law have made it possible to enable commercialization of these resources, in accordance with the market demand. Moreover, the rule enables usage of forest for tourist, recreational, sport and other cultural-healthy endeavors, which will boost Georgia’s unique eco-tourism potential and expand recreational-tourism actions beyond protected areas and into each and every forest of Georgia.
The Government of Georgia-adopted rule for forest use adopts the principles of the forest code and empowers Georgia’s citizens to sustainably utilize forest resources in a multifunctional capacity.