Otar Shamugia: Georgia kicked off ambitious environmental reforms after EU Association Agreement

20:32, 06.02.2024

Otar Shamugia, a candidate for the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture, on Tuesday, presented a brief overview of the Ministry’s work and upcoming plans to the parliamentary committees.

In his speech, Shamugia said that ambitious reforms in almost all areas of environmental policy had begun after the signing of the association agreement in 2014.

“To support biodiversity conservation, Georgia has established 100 protected areas of various classifications, accounting for approximately 13.1% of the country’s land.

We continue to improve the ecotourism infrastructure. This year, new ecotourism infrastructure will be built in at least ten areas, with 10 million GEL allotted.

In 2023, 1,070,000 visitors visited Georgia’s protected areas, a 19% increase over 2022 data.

In recent years, Georgia has enacted important regulations such as the Forest Code, environmental responsibility, aquaculture, water resource management, and industrial emissions,” Shamugia stated.

By - Marika Kartozia

Politics

EU association agreement

Otar Shamugia