Firefighters, Turkish Planes Battle Blaze in Southern Georgia
August 18, 2008
Georgian firefighters are battling a forest fire spread across up to 500-hectares in the Adigeni district of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, southern Georgia.
At the Georgian side’s request, Turkish fire-fighting airplanes dropped water on the fire on August 16.
Firefighters have failed to control the blaze because of strong overnight winds on August 16, officials said.
“Currently, the fire poses no threat to nearby settlements, and now we are trying to prevent the fire from spreading to the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park,” Environment Minister Davit Tkeshelashvili said on August 16.
He said that Georgia hasn’t had a forest fire this large for 20 years.
The fire broke out in the vicinity of the resort town of Abastumani in the Adigeni district overnight on August 15.
Georgia asked Turkey to provide fire-fighting airplanes, and Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili thanked his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul for his assistance during a phone conversation on August 15.
The Turkish Minister noted that this assistance was “a logical step” towards a country with which Turkey has close ties, according to the Georgian Foreign Ministry.
Turkey provided Georgia with a similar assistance in September, 2004, when a forest fire broke out in Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park.
Source: Civil.Ge Online Magazine, August 2008
www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=13321&search=borjomi%20fire
Mtirala National Park Meets Tourist Season Ready
July 10, 2008
Mtirala National Park Administration was organized the presentation, which was attended by Minister of Environment Protection and Natural Recourses of Georgia, Head of Agency of Protected Areas and Head of Tourism Department of Achara Autonomic Republic Temur Diasamidze.
The presentation was organized, about tourist season approaching, for Georgian tour operators and owners of guest houses to know about Mtirala National Park’s tourist potential and new tourist infrastructure projects. Mtirala National Park will be equipped during a month.
Source: Agency of Protected Areas, July 2008
www.dpa.gov.ge/index.php?lan=en&id=55&iid=286
Agency of Protected Areas Has Conducted Seminars to the Teachers of Tbilisi’s 50 Schools
July 10, 2008
The Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Georgia, the Head of Agency of Protected Areas Giorgi Shonvadze had given the certificates to the teachers of Tbilisi schools. Teaches had gotten this certificates for listening the seminar according to subject – “The Meaning of Protected Areas”. 120 teachers of Tbilisi’s 50 schools had attended the seminar. The seminar was held with participation of the Agency of Protected Areas and USAID. Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia had selected the participant schools. The film presentations and Photo-exhibitions had hold during the seminars too about protected areas of Georgia.
The purpose of these seminars was to grow interest about protected areas of Georgia and introduction environmental protection abilities at schools.
After seminars the knowledge of the teachers had been raised about protected areas. In the future they are planning to organize student conference at schools and to organize trips on the protected areas. Resembling activities will be continued for the other region school’s teachers by Agency of Protected Areas.
Source: Agency of Protected Areas, July 2008
www.dpa.gov.ge/index.php?lan=en&id=55&iid=285
Letter From Georgia: Birdwatching by a Remote Monastery
May 22, 2008
On a trip last month through the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia, where we were reporting on the budding recovery of the Georgian winemaking traditions and efforts to combat wine fraud, we decided to take the long road back to Tbilisi, the capital, and use our travel time to tour Georgia’s border with Azerbaijan. There, we heard, we would see not only some of the earliest and most remote sites of Georgian Christianity, but we might glimpse the beginning of the spring raptor migration, a wonder even more timeless. Our next appointment in Tbilisi was not until the night; we risked a few-hours jog off the main route.
Slide Show: Birding in Georgia The trip took us from the lush southern slopes of the Caucasus, the snow-cloaked peaks and black soils of Georgian wine country, to the semi-arid desert that borders the Azeri steppe. The road, a buckling stretch of Soviet asphalt that eventually gives way to a dirt track, passed from Sagarejo to David Gareji, an ancient monastery, where we planned to climb the dry ridge into the wind, to see what was soaring northward, bound for the breeding season ahead.
WHY: For me, watching birds has two principal meanings. First, it is about slowing down, about noticing. I have watched for birds since childhood, almost always as a complement to other things. This has been especially true in my fishing and hunting, where the process of entering the environment, and silently attuning yourself to water and land from which you hope to feed, opens your senses to the wild sights and sounds that envelop you throughout each day - if only you let them in. This occurs not just when I am outdoors in search of a meal. Birds are almost always there, somehow, to be seen on hurried walks to the subway station, or from passing trains and cars. Looking for birds allows me to pick up the currents and natural borders that a working life can obliterate from view and from thought. Even the most incidental bird watching delivers insights and affirmations about the vagaries of the seasons, the subtle shifts of streams and tide, the boundaries of vegetation and habitat, and motions of air, weather and planet.