Amendments to the law

Last week, after the third hearing the Parliament amended the law enforcement policies related to littering within the Protected Areas. Particularly, the article has been added to the code that contains different types of littering penalties. It should be noted that until now acts of littering were subject to fines only if the actions would cause specific types of degradation to the forest.

Littering or damage of Protected Areas:  

1. Leaving household waste and garbage will result in a fine of 50 Gel; The same action will be carried out in the territories of Nature Reserves, Nature Monuments, and UNESCO heritage sites will result in a fine of 100 GEL;

2. Leaving Construction waste, solid construction or other building materials will result in a fine of 150 GEL for a civilian and 1,000GEL for a juridical person, organization etc. The same action carried out in the territories of Nature Reserves, Nature Monuments, or UNESCO heritage sites will result in a fine of 200 GEL for a civilian and 1,500GELfor a juridical person, organization etc.

3. Leaving any radioactive, bacteriological, chemical and industrial, municipal, or other harmful substances and waste will be subject to afine of 3,000 GEL;

4. Damaging Nature Monuments will result in a fine of 250 GEL for a civilian and 700 GEL  for the juridical person, organization etc.   

Additionally, repeatedly committing any of the abovementioned actions will potentially result in the subject paying increased fines.