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The News in Brief

Wednesday, June 12
One more protected area in Georgia

Another protected area will be added to the list of protected lands of Georgia - Ponto Oak Sanctuary.

According to the Agency of Protected Areas of Georgia, Ponto Oak Sanctuary is located in Guria, Chokhatauri municipality with the area of 443 hectares.

The Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Committee approved the bill on Creation and Management of Ponto Oak Sanctuary with the II reading in April 2019.

The authors of the relevant bill are the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Agency of Protected Areas, and WWF Caucasus Programme Office.

The objective of the bill was to establish the new protected area – Ponto Oak Sanctuary to maintain and preserve the unique forest of Quercus Pontica C. Koch, enlisted in the Red List, in Chokhatauri Municipality, Guria.

Nowadays, there are about 87 protected areas of a different category (based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria), in particular: 14 state reserves, 11 national parks, 41 monuments of nature, 19 wilderness areas, and 2 protected landscapes. So far, there is no protected area with sustainable use of natural resources in Georgia.



Middle Paleolithic monument discovered in Kharagauli

Archaeological expedition discovered the monument from the Middle Paleolithic Era - Mousterian Culture, in Kharagauli, close to the new railway tunnel.

The Head of the expedition, Tengiz Meshveliani from the Georgian National Museum Paleoanthropology and Paleobiology Research Institute reported that the discovered cave is about 50-60 thousand years old and two cultural layers have been discovered on site.

After the excavation process, the discovered materials will be handed to Kharagauli Historical Museum.

On June 28 Kharagauli will be visited by archaeologists of Jerusalem University, who are funding archaeological excavations in Tskaltubo and Chiatura in Western Georgia.

The Mousterian industry is a tool culture traditionally associated with Neanderthal man in Europe, western Asia, and Northern Africa during the early Fourth (Wurm) Glacial Period (c. 40,000 BC).



UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Georgia

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is to undertake an official visit to Georgia.

The information spread in Geneva at the meeting with Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili.

According to the press service of the President of Georgia, the possibility of enlargement of a geographical area for the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Georgia was discussed at the meeting.

President of Georgia is attending the International Labor Conference held at United Nations Office in Geneva.
(By Mariam Chanishvili)