Bendu and His Unit

Aleko Tskitishvili

It is no longer a surprise that Georgian government and Parliament make vital decisions in an expedited way. No time is provided for public discussions. Often they are not only neglecting the public opinion, but violating the law since the law obligates the government to publicly discuss certain issues.

They are taking the same course to alienate the forests under 49-year lease agreement. They try to do this as fast as possible by bypassing the civil sector.

Neglecting environmental issues started when Kakha Bendukidze became Minister of Economics.

“We can sell everything but the conscience!” – He said back then.

“Bendukidze is Judas!” – replied supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

“Why am I Judas?!” – Bendu was surprised.

It is not a bad idea to transfer the ownership of forests or transfer it for long-term use if certain conditions are met and these conditions are agreed with the public. Also, the alienation of forests should be preceded by inventarization – counting trees and controlling how many will be cut by a private owner and how many will be planted instead.

Unfortunately, things do not happen this way. Bendukidze’s slogan works in practice in this way: “Let us sell everything without conscience!”

On September 4th, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources sent the projects of Forest Code and Lease Agreement to public organizations by e-mail. Rather big amount of documents were prepared in English language.

It is hard to understand why to transfer documents in English to Georgian organizations when its translation and right apprehension needs extra time?! And the Ministry gave just weeks to get acquainted with the documents and prepare responses and proposals.

This creates a doubt that the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources tries to create certain obstacles for the civil society on purpose to hinder the government’s intention regarding the issuance of long-term lease agreement on the forests.

Georgian citizens are not granted legal right to participate in decision-making of vital issues.

This is how new draft-law was presented to the Parliament according to which it will be allowed to hunt in national parks and in protected or prohibited areas. The change will be made to the existing Code. Allowing hunting in the protected territories is surprising and alarming decision. The initiators of the draft law should at least explain why they had to take such step.

It is surprising that the Ministry of Energy decides the issues of environment and natural resources now. However, the energy and environmental protection are incompatible. Aren’t the interests of energy consumptions connected to consumption of natural resources?!
The decisions made by the Ministry of Energy regarding the natural resources looks like chess game. In this game it depends on the mood of the Minister what will be sacrificed – energy or nature. It looks more like it will be the second. The protected environment, unique forests, national parks and animals can be the source of big money only in long-term perspective. The Minister of Energy and government cannot wait. Bendukidze’s unit has a big appetite. They want money today!

Depriving the right of managing natural resources and transferring it to the Ministry of Energy already means that the government is not very interested in the protection of environment and preservation of unique forests. Everything is done in order to make the natural resources an easy way to fill the budget. These kinds of people with consumers’ attitude do not think what will happen tomorrow when the landslides and floods attack the villages.

A while ago, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources determined the list of hunting animals by the order. This list included roe. Thus, according to the Minister’s decree, it is allowed to hunt the roe, as for the prohibited areas, the Parliament will legalize it.

On one of the forums I came across the concern of hunters that armed band formations kill quails.

One of the hunters stated: “I went out to the field one day. I came out of the car and heard three duck callings. I have been hunting for my whole life and have never seen such a thing – wherever I looked, it was tons of people in the dark. I thought I had a hallucination, but as soon as the light came on I believed that it was not a hallucination and it was reality. My friend and I could count about 38 men with guns. Then the shooting erupted, people were swearing, the wounded dogs were wailing! If I was not near the car, I would not have come out alive. I started observing – if there was more quail than the hunter, but no! These pseudo-hunters probably thought that the people were quails and blooded each other. I almost started to hate hunting after seeing such a horrible picture. No order and culture of hunting! Just to see one quail everybody shot one another. What is going on people, cannot these people perceive that their hunting guns are turning into killing guns?!”

Probably you also want to know what is this duck calling? I double-checked it with one of my friend hunters and found out following information: “Duck calling is a recorded voice of quail. As you know, the quails fly to Georgia from the warm countries and join the groups. They turn on the duck calling for whole night in the field. All quails unite there. Then they attack them in the morning and kill hundreds of quails. Two is the limit though. The tragedy is that if you break this duck calling, you will be sued in the court. This thing is sold everywhere. Inspection of Environmental Protection does not even exist. They are either blind or they too use duck callings. What can we do, this is our law. Bendu and his units owe Georgian nature...”

See the topic on TV Maestro:
http://www.maestro.ge/?address=uc&id=25187&page=1