President speaks about Georgia's unique biodiversity at UN General Assembly Biodiversity Summit

President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili spoke about Georgia's rich and unique biodiversity and focused on the principles of its protection at the UN General Assembly Biodiversity Summit.

The President of Georgia addressed members of the international community. According to her, today’s dangerous degradation of nature is unprecedented.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has only strengthened our perception that we should not ignore the climate changes that cause imbalances and that the pandemic is one of the greatest threats to human evolution and biodiversity.

As never before, we see the need for urgent transformational changes," she said.

Salome Zourabichvili spoke about Georgia, specifically Tusheti, and said that Tusheti is a biodiversity reservoir that we should all preserve together.

"As for my country, Georgia is distinguished by its unique biodiversity, thousands of endemic species and a protected area stretching over hundreds of thousands of hectares.

Through the Emerald Network, which we have recently joined, we are trying to achieve our goal - 20% of the total territory of Georgia to be a protected area. One such area is Tusheti, which I visited last week. The region that has preserved Georgia's most precious natural treasure and has great potential for ecotourism. Tusheti is a biodiversity reservoir that we must all preserve together," the President said.

According to her, for a country like Georgia, economic development is also vital.

"Our goal is to take precautions to ensure the protection of biodiversity and to balance the country's development and the needs of nature. Recent fundamental legislative reforms allow us to integrate the environmental dimension into all development programs”, said the President.

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