Georgia Appoints Environmental Ombudsman to Overcome Challenges
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, May 3
Georgian Prime Minister, Mamuka Bakhtadze, has appointed United States citizen David Morrison as the Environmental Ombudsman of Georgia.
During the nomination ceremony in Tbilisi Botanical Garden on Thursday, the PM noted that Morrison has made a great contribution to the tangible progress achieved in maintaining the biodiversity of Georgia in over 10 years of his operation in the area.
Environmental Ombudsman is also a former head of the Caucasus Nature Fund (CNF) with a previous 28-year career in law.
“David Morrison is also quite well known to the international environmental community. He will cooperate with everyone, including executive and legislative authorities of Georgia, civil society, donor agencies and international organizations that are engaged in the protection of the environment,” the PM said.
The new Institute of the Environmental Ombudsman was initiated by Bakhtadze and it aims to protect the best interests and rights of the environment. This institute will be the most important mechanism to overcome environmental challenges in Georgia
Therefore, the ombudsman will be a person of high legitimacy in the protection of the environment, who will have a secretariat for scrutiny of cases for consideration.
In addition to this, the Environmental Ombudsman will release recommendations on significant matters, including the amendments to legislation, engagement in public discussions and consultations with stakeholders.
Bakhtadze expressed hope that the new institution will significantly facilitate the efforts used to overcome the challenges witnessed in the protection of the environment. He also stressed the principal significance of the environment for the country and its future generations, thereby calling for greater public engagement.
“We should conceptualize the reality - utterly irresponsible policy pursued in the past decades, disregard of environmental principles and interests have led to the heaviest results and we are fighting against these consequences. We need to carry out very decisive and important reforms, which will involve the efforts of each citizen of Georgia, civil society and every NGO operating in the area concerned,” he said.
Minister of Environment and Agriculture Levan Davitashvili also delivered a speech at the nomination of Morrison. According to him, the ombudsman will take actions to improve the conditions of the people who work in the environmental field in Georgia.
“The ombudsman will be tasked to write recommendations regarding important environmental issues, as well as about the changes which should be carried out in the law,” he said.
In his speech, Morrison underlined that he is glad to take the responsibility of an Environmental Ombudsman.
“I do believe that the environment needs a legal representative who believes in it and stands for it. I am a lawyer by profession and for now the Georgian environment will be my client and I will protect its interests,” he said.
