Presenting an assessment of the level of awareness of the forestry sector at the national level

According to the study, 30% of the respondents used the forest for a variety of activities in the previous year. The respondents living in Tbilisi (83%), or in city-type settlements (61%), mostly use forests to rest. The respondents living in rural-type settlements use forest equally, for both resting (38%) and sapwood extraction resources (35%). the percentage of people using forests for rest purposes is decreasing along with the increasing age. Only 24% percent declare having information on energy-efficient ovens.

70% of the respondents believe that current legislative restrictions on forests are not fully enforced. According to every second respondent, there is a possibility of receiving an adequate forest education in Georgia. As respondents said, spreading forest education can bring society several kinds of benefits: the ecological background will be improved, the society will be in a safe environment, the unreasonable cutting down of trees will be reduced, and in the form of forests, we will have an important windbreak, among other things.

The research was conducted by EIEC of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, with the help of the Institute of Social Research and Analyses. The research covered both instruments: qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. The focus group was selected, and in-depth interviews were conducted. The questionnaires were spread among different targeted groups.

The meeting conducted to share the research outcomes was attended by the director of EIEC, Tamar Aladashvili, the head of the Biodiversity and Forest Department, Carl Amirgulashvili, and the director of the project ''ECO.Georgia'', Lutz Jarczynski.

The research was conducted within the project "Supporting the forest sector reform implementation in Georgia (ECO. Georgia’’, Green Climate Fund GCF), which IS co-financed by the Georgian Government, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The project is implemented by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, with the involvement of other agencies under the Ministry.