Georgian PM: An end must be put to illegal tree felling
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We are starting an uncompromising battle against the illegal usage of forests, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said at today’s cabinet meeting.
Kvirikashvili said the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture is working on important changes regulating and strengthening laws that concern forests and their utilization as natural resources.
Prime Minister Kvirikashvili said the new rules will:
- Reduce the damage to forests,
- Encourage the sustainable development of forests;
- Reduce cases of illegal tree felling.
Kvirikashvili believes this can be made possible with the support and engagement of local governments and law enforcement bodies.
Biofuel made from forest waste will soon be a widespread practice across the entire Georgia. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
He said many municipalities are gradually moving towards using biofuel made from forest waste, which will soon be a widespread practice across the entire country. This, according to PM Kvirikashvili, will save forest resources and help restore the forests.
A unique charity match between the all-time football stars has ended with a score of six to five as the "World XI” team defeated "GFF XI” at Tbilisi Dinamo Arena today. GEL 403,214 gathered from the sales for the event will now be spent on the restoration of the forest burnt in Borjomi Gorge in August.
Georgia’s future ecologists are teaming up with children from five other nations to brainstorm ways to foster forest development and conservation through a new project called Young Foresters’ Network.
Leading specialists, scientists, delegates and representatives of local and foreign enterprises, exporter organisations, Governmental bodies and civil society are teaming up to develop a Non-Timber Forest Products’ sector in Georgia.
About 100ha of degraded forest from intensive cattle grazing will be restored in Georgia’s western Adjara region through the support of a European Union (EU)-funded forest sustainable development initiative.
Georgia is tightening sanctions against illegal tree felling to reduce damage to forests and encourage the sustainable development of forests in the country.
The import of timber will be exempt from value-added tax (VAT) in Georgia in order to prevent illegal tree felling in the country, Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has announced.
A new programme will be launched in 2019 to co-finance a new enterprise that will process forest waste, announces Georgia’s Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture.
Foresting licenses will no longer be issued in Georgia per the country’s new Forest Code, said head of the Department of Biodiversity and Forest Policy of Georgia’s Ministry of Environment and Agriculture Karlo Amirgulashvili.
251 cases of illegal logging and timber transportation were recorded in between July 1-31, the Environmental Supervision Department reports.
The State Sub-Agency Department of Environmental Supervision has recorded 161 cases of illegal logging and transportation of timber throughout Georgia in April 2020.
The State Sub-Agency Department of Environmental Supervision has recorded 155 cases of illegal logging and transportation of timber throughout Georgia in May 2020. Out of 155 cases, nine of them may be criminally prosecutable, says the agency.
The State Sub-Agency Department of Environmental Supervision has recorded 210 cases of illegal logging and transportation of timber throughout Georgia in April 2021.
Up to 80 illegally logged spruce trees were seized in Tbilisi by environmental supervision professionals as they were being sold for the holiday season, the Department of Environmental Supervision said on Friday.