Sanctions tightened to prevent illegal tree felling in Georgia
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Georgia is tightening sanctions against illegal tree felling to reduce damage to forests and encourage the sustainable development of forests in the country.
The Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia has been working on regulating and strengthening laws that concern forests and relevant legislative amendments have already been proposed to the Parliament of Georgia.
The amendments will make a person criminally accountable for tree felling if they have already faced administrative measures.
The sanctions will also be tightened against illegally cutting trees from the Red List and this action will be criminally prosecutable.
The amount of administrative fines will be significantly increased for cutting trees and shrubs which are included in the forest fund and protected areas.
The amendments include tightened sanctions against poaching as well; if a person violates the hunting laws after an administrative penalty is imposed, he/she will be deprived of the right to carry a hunting weapon for a certain period of time.
Employees of the environmental patrol and rapid response division patrol 24 hours a day to detain illegally obtained natural resources and to prevent such actions.
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.
The Georgian Environment Ministry plans to design a monitoring and warning system for forest fires across Georgia that will give early notice of an impending disaster. Negotiations with foreign donors and experts have already launched.
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.
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 registered 3,573 cases of illegal logging and transportation of timber in 2019.
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.