New botanical garden planned at occupation line near de facto Abkhazia

The Government of Georgia is creating a vast botanical garden in a village that lies along the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) separating Georgia’s occupied Abkhazia region from the rest of Georgia. 

Today the Georgian leadership announced plans were in place to create an 83.5 hectare botanical garden in Ganmukhuri village, located in northwestern Georgia.

The Cartu Foundation, established by Georgia’s former-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, will wholly finance the project in western Zugdidi Municipality.

Head of the Zugdidi City Council Lasha Gogia told local online media Ipress the area where the botanical garden was planned was currently a marshland. 

More planning and research was needed before authorities could say when the works to create the new botanical garden could launch and finish, and the amount of funds needed to complete the project, said Gogia.

He noted the territory where the botanical garden will be built was owned by Georgia’s Ministry of Economy however the Ministry had handed the land over to the Zugdidi Municipality, where Ganmukhuri village is located.