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

print

share

Otar Shamugia met with the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mukhtar Babayev

Within the framework of the Ministerial in Baku, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Mr. Otar Shamugia held a meeting with the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Mukhtar Babayev.

"In recent years, Georgia has been actively cooperating with the Representation of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the field of protected areas, aiming to enhance cross-border cooperation between the two countries.

Within the framework of the program, a number of important activities were carried out in the biodiversity protection and monitoring fields.
"Among them, several dozen Goitered gazelles were sent from Azerbaijan to Vashlovani National Park in Georgia, for which I would like to thank the Azerbaijani side once again," Mr. Otar Shamugia said.

As a result of the successful cooperation and fruitful work, since 2013, the number of gazelles has been increasing steadily.
The 7th generation of gazelles was born in 2021 and the population has now exceeded 200 species.

It was mentioned, that within the framework of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) regional program, cross-border biodiversity monitoring was launched in Georgia between the Lagodekhi Protected Areas and the Zakatala Nature Reserve in Azerbaijan. The aforementioned protected areas were selected due to their uniqueness.

" Lagodekhi Protected Areas and Zakatala Nature Reserve are of the utmost importance across the Caucasus region in terms of their biodiversity and are identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as one of the most important eco-regions around the world.

"Considering difficult mountainous terrain and geomorphological structures of the Lagodekhi and Zakatala Protected Areas, it was difficult to select appropriate methods for monitoring, however, through efforts and involvement of experts from the two countries, we have settled this issue’’ Mr. Shamugia said.

The First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture Mr. George Khanishvili and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the Republic of Azerbaijan Zurab Pataradze attended the meeting.