Illegal Logging Damages Caucasus Mountain Forests in Georgia
5/8/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE
Much, if not most, of the World's most significant remaining stands
of ancient forests are threatened by illegal logging to various
degrees; ranging from international mafia like cartels, to local
gangs and armies, down to villagers trying to survive on the economic
margin. It is difficult to visualize movement to attain global forest
sustainability that does not include a concerted, coordinated,
international effort to rein in illegal logging. The latest forests
to fall victim to short term ecological plunder are those of Georgia
in the Caucasus Mountains.
g.b.
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Illegal Logging Damages Caucasus Mountain Forests
Source: Environment News Service -- http://ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: May 7, 1999
Byline: Nino Chelidze
TBILISI, Georgia, May 7, 1999 (ENS) - Local and foreign timber
producers are using an uncontrollable situation in Georgia to
illegally cut down forests of millions of cubic meters.
There is no legislation comparable to world standards regulating the
use and export of timber in Georgia. Former Soviet laws with two
unimportant amendments regulate this system. The government is in the
process of writing a new bill, but in the meantime uncontrolled
logging continues.
In 1998 Parliament adopted a resolution forbidding commercial cutting
and logging in the whole territory of Georgia, before the new
Forestry Code is adopted. The resolution is still in effect, but is
largely unenforced.
The Forest Ministry says that the recent intensive deforestation
activities are "unprecedented." The almost complete reduction of
timber imports from Russia after 1994 are responsible for the sharply
increased logging, because Russian timber once met more then 85
percent of Georgia's requirements.
Government statistics vary widely on the amount of timber cut each
year. According to information from the Ministry of Environment,
2,500,000 cubic meters are cut yearly. But according to Department of
Forestry statistics only 400,000 cubic meters are logged annually.
In the past, timber was always used as a solid fuel, and common
people, especially peasants, knew which trees to cut for this purpose
and which to leave standing. So, they did not violate the natural
balance. Today in Georgia, timber is mainly used as a solid fuel, but
beyond Georgia's borders its application is in the building and
timber industries.
According to Georgia's Constitution - "The State ensures protection
of environment and utilization of nature taking into consideration
interests of future generations." But this provision is not being
fulfilled today.
A large part of Georgia's mountain forests have been conserved in a
pristine state providing shelter for rare, native plants and animals.
Such forests should be considered as natural resources of
international significance, the country's environmentalists say.
Mountain forests of Georgia have ecological protective functions
especially in Racha, in the northwestern part of Georgia in the
Caucasus central region.
But this protective function is being destroyed as logging on
mountain slopes stimulates landslides and floods.
The logging is proving ruinous for the wildlife as well as unique
health resorts and mineral waters.
In 1996, six people died in flooding caused by deforestation. Thirty
bridges and motorcar routes of 22 kilometres in length were destroyed
and damaged, 200 houses were destroyed, and over 400 hectares of
agricultural lands were submerged. The economic loss was estimated at
four million lari, the Georgian national currency (no U.S. equivalent
available).
In 1997, four people died in logging-related floods and landslides.
The total damages to buildings, roads and bridges and flooded
farmlands was estimated at 38 million lari - nearly ten times the
amount of damage estimated for 1996.
In 1998, no one was killed, but two villages and 26,000 hectares of
land were flooded, motorcar routes were damaged and washed away. The
losses have not been estimated.
Against this background - frightening for such a small country as
Georgia - the Georgian Forest Department and the World Bank intend to
implement a forest economy development project in the mountainous Oni
region.
The project envisages the establishment of a 500,000 hectare
laboratory zone in the central Caucasus region. During the two years
of the project's implementation two so-called specific cutting
systems will be tested. Annually, 1,000,000 cubic meters will be cut
under the laboratory program.
In 1996, 35 species of trees and bushes were counted by forest
inventory. Beeches cover over 50 percent of the territory. The area
is now inhabited by 5,600 people.
The area earmarked to be a part of protected area system in Georgia.
For this reason it was chosen by the World Bank and Georgia's
Forestry Department to implement a demonstration model that can be
easily spread to other mountainous regions.
Friends of the Earth (FOE) Georgia is an large environmental
organisation with 6,000 members and 46 local offices. For the past
four years, FOE Georgia has been working to ban timber export. The
group aims to change or totally stop the World Bank forest laboratory
project. They are running a media campaign, arranging public
discussions, lobbying the government and the World Bank.
The project's authors say that the forests are being renewed annually
by 3,000,000 cubic meters. But environmentalists maintain that old
forests produce ten times more oxygen then new ones, and are more
valuable for wildlife and habitat protection as well as protection
against flooding and landslides.