Georgia Education Profile 2O12

As in many other areas, Georgia established a comprehensive legal framework for environment protection in the 1990s. Due to corruption and indifference, however, serious problems occurred with regard to enforcing these legal norms. After the Rose Revolution, the authorities initiated some reforms, which mainly aimed at enhancing the state’s monitoring and sanction potential. They pursued a strategy based mainly on two pillars. First, they merged a wide range of competing agencies with overlapping competences under the roof of the Ministry for the Protection of the Environment in order to strengthen oversight capacities.

Secondly, they reduced the number of permits in order to remove opportunities for extortion. Critics claim that especially the second element of the overall reform strategy had some fatal consequences. After authorities finished abolishing regulations, oil and gas extraction and construction ceased to be classified as environmentally sensitive activities. Severe environmental problems can be observed in two areas. First, the protection of forests suffers from major shortcomings. Because of persisting corruption, almost 60% of the annual forest harvest (40% of Georgian territory is covered with forest) goes unrecorded. In addition, the situation is worsened by the total absence of strategies and resources for a sustainable management of resources. No reliable forest inventories exist. Official leasing contracts are as a rule short-term and do not provide any incentives for a sustainable use of resources. As a consequence, deforestation had reached an alarming degree, increasing the likelihood of soil erosion, landslides and flooding.

Secondly, large parts of the Georgian population still suffer from limited access to a supply of clean potable water. In 2005, almost 30% of the population was not connected to water pipelines. In addition, due to infrastructural breakdown, the water in many parts of the country is highly contaminated. The problem is partly caused by corrupt management, partly by a lack of resources and partly by inadequate pricing. Even in 2007, tariffs covered only 30% of the real costs. In recent years, however, Georgia has taken steps to rehabilitate water pipelines and optimize management.