Part I

Draft Black Sea Regional Transmission Project ESIA
3.0 LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter describes the national and international legal framework of the Black Sea
Regional Transmission Project, including standards and policies applicable to the Project.
3.1 National Legal and Regulatory framework
The legal framework for environmental protection is based on the Constitution of Georgia.
Though the Constitution does not directly address environmental matters, it does confirm the
right of any person to live in a healthy environment, use the natural and cultural environment,
at the same time obliging any person to take care of the natural and cultural environment
(Article 37, Part 3). The Constitution also down the legal framework that guarantees public
access to information, stating that an individual has the right to obtain full, unbiased, and
timely information regarding his working and living environment (Article 37, Part 5).
3.1.1 Administrative framework
The Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources is responsible for all
environmental protection issues in Georgia. Their activities are implemented through a
central office and six regional units: east central, west central, Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli,
Samtskhe-Javakheti, Samegrelo and Zemo Svaneti.
The responsibilities of the Ministry as the competent authority are:
To intermit, limit or stop any activity having or likely to have adverse impact on the
environment, as well as unreasonable use of natural resources.
To issue a series of licenses and permits (including for environmental impact).
To control the execution of mitigation measures by the developer (in this case,
GSE, the Project Execution Agency).
To receive free and unrestricted information from the developer about the
utilization of natural resources, monitoring systems, waste management etc. and
explanations from authorities concerned by the Project.
The regional executive bodies perform the main administrative functions in each district.
There are several key agencies within the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural
Resources.
Agency of Protected Areas. This Agency is responsible for state reserves,
national parks, natural monuments, managed reserves, protected landscapes,
biosphere reserves, world heritage districts and wetlands of international
importance. The main tasks of the agency are to control territories of multilateral
usage, to implement activities of looking after protected areas, to supervise,
preserve, rehabilitate and protect them.
National Environmental Agency (established 29 August 2008) is responsible for
preparing informational documents, forecasts and warnings regarding to existing
and expected hydro-meteorological and geodynamic processes, also
environment pollution conditions in order to provide state security, existing and
expected hydro meteorological forecasting of rivers, water reserves and the Black
Sea territorial waters, to assess conditions of geodynamic processes, engineering
and geo-ecological conditions of environment and to prepare and spread
information on environmental conditions, to create database of engineering
infrastructure of coastal zone, to manage united state fund information on
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