01.03.2020

Development of Community Forestry Management in Georgia

Lack of sustainable forest management, including its environmental, social and economic functions has led to severe forest degradation in Georgia. A major part of the degradation is due to local use of the forests, mainly for firewood.

Some of the main reasons for this degradation have been addressed through government actions and donor assistance, in particular, the National Forest Concept, developed and approved by the Georgian Parliament in 2014 with financial and technical support from the Austrian Development Agency, considers that “All forests are local. The Greens Movement of Georgia/Friends of the Earth, with support of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung conducted legal, institutional, financial and technical analysis of the potential of development of Community forestry in Georgia based on best European experience, including broad scale survey of local municipalities. Results of the survey did show that almost all municipalities (59) declared the importance of community forestry and their willingness to initiate and participate in pilot projects. In addition, study did show that there are legal preconditions in place to start development of community forestry, though it will require further support to solve institutional, financial and technical aspects.

Merab Matchavariani, Natalia Sokhadze

Greens Movement of Georgia – Friends of Earth, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Tbilisi 2019


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