A closing conference was held for the EU civil servant twinning project “Strengthening sustainable management of forests in Georgia”. Launched in June 2017 and financed through the EU’s twinning instrument programme (840,000 EUR approximately 2,270,000 GEL), the project hosted over 120 international expert missions have been completed, six study visits to Lithuania and Hungary, many seminars and a number of roundtable discussions.
Within the frameworks of the project, specific recommendations were developed in order to aid the Georgian government in speeding up the process of bringing local forestry sector standards up to the equivalent level of EU practices. The recommendations concerned several areas of forestry sector such as legal and regulatory frameworks, increasing institutional capacity building, best organizational and forest management models, as well as reliable forest information and monitoring systems. The project also drew attention to the importance of sectoral communication. “In Lithuania, the forest waste, so-called biomass is effectively transformed into heat energy. We can also use this alternative technique of processing biomass in different villages, where for various reasons bringing in natural gas has been difficult.” – stated the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Natia Turnava during her discussion with the journalists. According to her, cutting down trees for wood is one of the main challenges
as the forest is one of the most unique resources.
“The preservation of forests and green cover is a huge priority and our energy policy should be
aligned with this. We are all working hard on specific research that explores policy directions about forestry and recreational zones to avoid damaging green cover and simultaneously can offer affordable alternatives to the citizens so they no longer require wood for heating” – stated the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava.
