Amendment to the Bill of the Protected Areas System

On Friday, January 10 at the cabinet meeting of the Government the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection presented an amendment to the bill of law of the Protected Areas System in Georgia. The amendment to the bill considers the exclusion of land plots and infrastructural facilities owned by private persons from the territories of Protected Areas during the demarcation process.

According to the National Agency of the Public Registry, there are 2326 plots of privately owned land near and inside of the boundaries of the Protected Areas, 210 of which currently have suspended registration status. As a result, these individuals are banned from buying, selling, mortgaging, rebuilding or equipping their properties with electricity.

According to the current bill of law, reduction or changing the capacity of territories of Protected Areas is allowed only in a few cases, so as to avoid damage to the protected ecosystem, preserve biodiversity and other related issues. This change will allow individuals whose property is partially or entirely located within the boundaries of Protected Areas to have full ownership rights of their property.

This process is important for the Agency of Protected Areas due to the fact that from now on, the Agency will only manage the territories that are the main objects of its scope of influence – preserving biodiversity and ecosystems. Therefore, land plots mistakenly falling within the boundaries of Protected Areas will finally be discharged from the authority of the Agency, thereby relieving a burden that impacted both the Agency and the owners.