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

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Otar Shamugia: "Illegal logging remains a challenge; hence these legislative amendments were prepared".

Sanctions on illegal forest use are getting tougher.
 

The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr. Otar Shamugia, spoke to the media representatives following the government session, stating that the changes in the criminal law and administrative offences codes drafted by the Ministry intend to tighten current measures for accountability on illegal timber use.

"Upon the instructions of the Prime Minister, we have prepared a draft law on amendments to the criminal and administrative crime codes. Considering its preventative purposes, the draft law envisages tightening responsibility for the illegal use of timber. Firstly, we initiated a complex reform in the forestry sector, based on which we adopted the new Forest Code.

Currently, up to 54 log sort yards are operating in the Forestry Agency, supplying different categories of wood resources to the population. For the first time in the history of independent Georgia, we completed the National Forest Inventory program. Forest restoration and planting are being carried out quite vigorously, covering ​​more than 4 thousand hectares, and the process will continue in the next few years following the plan. Also, the capacities of the Department of Environmental Supervision and the National Forestry Agency were significantly strengthened.

However, illegal logging remains a challenge. Therefore, these legislative amendments were prepared to tighten responsibility in such areas as unlawful harvesting of large amounts of timber, violation of sawmill registration requirements, discovery of unmarked timber in sawmill territory, and illegal transportation of timber resources.

Our goal is to prevent unlawful forest usage, and we believe this draft law will help achieve this purpose. 

As stated by the Prime Minister, the respective draft law will be submitted to Parliament, and we hope for their approval", said the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr Otar Shamugia.