Availability of Information on the State of the Environment in Georgia
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AVAILABILITYAVAILABILITY OFOF INFORMATIONINFORMATION ONON THETHE STATESTATE OFOF THETHE ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT ININ GEORGIAGEORGIA What kind of environmental informaƟ on is available? What informaƟ on about pollutants is available? This Report was published within project of Green AlternaƟ ve “Advocacy for transparent and accountable management of natural resources in Georgia”. The project is Į nancially supported by the Open Society FoundaƟ ons Network. The observaƟ ons in this report express the posiƟ on of Green AlternaƟ ve and shall not be considered as reŇ ecƟ ng the opinion of the Open Society FoundaƟ ons Network. Green AlternaƟ ve Tbilisi, 2015 © Green AlternaƟ ve 2015 27/29 Paliashvili Street, II Ň oor, 0179, Tbilisi, Georgia Tel.: (+99532)2292773; Fax: (+99532)2223874 [email protected] WWW.GREENALT.ORG Content Introducti on .....................................................................................................................................................................2 1. Informati on on the state of environment ....................................................................................................................2 1.1 Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources .................................................................................................2 1.2 Nati onal Environmental Agency ...........................................................................................................................4 1.3 Environmental Informati on and Educati on Center ..............................................................................................5 2. Informati on about major pollutants ............................................................................................................................7 2.1 RMG Gold and RMG Copper ................................................................................................................................8 2.1.1 “About us” ..................................................................................................................................................9 2.1.2 Environmental protecti on ..........................................................................................................................10 2.1.3 Social Projects ............................................................................................................................................10 2.2 Georgian Manganese ...........................................................................................................................................11 2.2.1 What informati on does the company publish .............................................................................................12 2.3 Saknakhshiri (GIG group) .....................................................................................................................................12 2.3.1 “About Us“ ...................................................................................................................................................13 2.3.2 Environmental Protecti on ...........................................................................................................................13 2.3.3 Social projects .............................................................................................................................................14 2.4 HeidelbergCement Georgia .................................................................................................................................15 2.4.1 “About Us” ...................................................................................................................................................16 2.4.2. Environmental Protecti on ..........................................................................................................................16 2.4.3 Social projects .............................................................................................................................................16 3. Conclusions..................................................................................................................................................................16 Introducti on According to Georgian Consti tuti on, with the view of ensuring safe environment, in accordance with ecological and economic interests of society, with due regard to the interests of the current and future generati ons the state shall guarantee the protecti on of environment and the rati onal use of nature. At the same ti me the state guarantees a person’s right to receive a complete, objecti ve and ti mely informati on as to a state of his/her working and living environment. Pursuant to the Law on “Environmental Protecti on” Nati onal Report on the State of Environment shall be the basic source of informati on for the society. Unti l 2007, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, under the law “On Environmental Protecti on” (1996), was required to publish nati onal reports on the state of environment annually. Since 2008 the Ministry is obliged to prepare such reports once in three years. However, the latest report, covering the state of environment in 2007-2009, was approved and published in 2011. Since then no report has been published. Pursuant to General Administrati ve Code of Georgia any administrati ve agency from 1 September 2013 shall proacti vely issue public informati on i.e. post informati on on electronic media. Georgia committ ed itself to guaranteeing the rights of access to informati on already in 1998 when joined the “Conventi on on access to informati on, public parti cipati on in decision-making and access to justi ce in environmental matt ers”, so called Aarhus Conventi on. Besides, for already 16 years the law on “Freedom of Informati on” is in force in Georgia. It sets quite high standards with regard to environmental informati on. However, the openness principle has not become the determining factor in the practi ce of the State. And the traditi onal, depending on the request, practi ce of accessibility of informati on is not suffi cient for the citi zens’ adequate informing. In this report we will try to show what kind of environmental informati on is available for the public without special request and what kind of informati on may a citi zen receive with regard to so called major pollutants. 1. Informati on on the state of environment As was menti oned above Georgia committ ed itself to guaranteeing a person’s right to receive a complete, objecti ve and ti mely informati on as to a state of his/her working and living environment already in 1995, when adopti ng the Consti tuti on. In 1996 the law “On environmental protecti on” was adopted. In this law the commitments under the Consti tuti on and guiding principles are clarifi ed more extensively; this includes the “principle of availability of the informati on”, according to which “informati on on the state of the environment is transparent and available to the public”. In the subchapters below we will consider environmental informati on, which diff erent public agencies provide the society with. 1.1 Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protecton Pursuant to the Ministry regulati ons it has the following sphere of governance and main tasks: Implementati on of nati onal policy in environmental protecti on; Public administrati on of environmental protecti on and the use of natural resources (except oil and gas); Organizati on of monitoring polluti on; Assessment of the existi ng and expected meteorological and geodynamic processes, geo-ecological situati on and preparati on of informati on on the state of environment on the territory of Georgia, in rivers and water reservoirs, Black Sea territorial waters, conti nental shelf and special economic zone; 2 Regulati on of nuclear and radiati on acti vity; Monitoring radioacti vity in the environment; Development of nati onal policy of founding, functi oning and managing the system of protected areas, coordinati on and monitoring the acti viti es; Monitoring biodiversity; Managing the collecti on of fauna species from the environment for research purposes; Ensuring availability of environmental informati on; Promoti on of environmental educati on and awareness raising; Preparati on of nati onal report on the state of the environment; Development of nati onal acti on plan on environmental acti viti es; Issuance of environmental impact permits; Environmental impact assessment; Issuance of permits for export, import, re-export and introducti on from the sea of the species, listed in the att achments to “the Conventi on on Internati onal Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora” (CITES), their parts and derivati ves; Monitoring ozone-depleti ng substance on the territory of Georgia; Climate change adaptati on and miti gati on of climate change; Waste management arrangements; Event planning within its competence for forecasti ng natural and anthropogenic hazards and risks and the implementati on of a single policy to ensure environmental safety; Working out the proposals on declaring or abolishing emergency ecological situati on or ecological disaster zone; Ensuring the rati onal use and protecti on of land, measures against soil erosion, carrying out acti viti es on restorati on and preservati on of ferti lity within its competence; Identi fi cati on of priority areas of cooperati on with internati onal organizati ons and foreign countries, coordinati on and monitoring the implementati on of the commitments assumed