Vashlovani Receives European Conservation Award

Vashlovani Protected Areas has joined 70 protected areas in Europe by receiving the five-year European Award for conservation.

The Diploma was granted for its preservation of biological, geological and landscape diversity.

Georgia applied for the European Diploma for Protected Areas in March 2014 and the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers decided to award Vashlovani Protected Areas with the award in June 2015.

According to the Minister of Environment Gigla Agulashvili, the award recognizes the Area’s outstanding scientific, cultural and aesthetic qualities.

“This is a huge achievement for Vashlovani Protected Areas. This diploma signifies worldwide recognition and I want to highlight the perfect functionality of management system on the territory,” stated Agulashvili.

Representative of the Council of the Europe, Eladio Fernandez Galiano, granted the Diploma to Agulashvili and assisted him to release pheasants within Vashlovani Protected Areas which had been hatched and raised in a special facility as part of the ‘Kolkhetian Pheasant Restoration in their Natural Habitats’ project.

Within the project, which was held during 2014 and 2015 thanks to financing from the Global Environment Foundation (GEF) and support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), a special incubator building was built where around 500 Kolkhetian pheasants were incubated and hatched in the safety of a laboratory. The majority of those 500 have now been released into protected areas.

Tatia Megeneishvili