Georgia

Georgia is located at the intersection of Europe and Asia, within the Caucasus region, which is recognized as one of the world's biodiversity hotspots. Although the country covers an area of only 69 700 km², it contains a remarkably wide range of ecosystems for its size. This diversity results from the interaction of several factors: complex topography with pronounced altitudinal gradients from sea level to over 5,000 m, strong climatic contrasts between the humid, Black Sea-influenced west and the drier, more continental east, varied geological substrates and soils, and the country's position at the meeting point of several biogeographic regions. In addition, parts of western Georgia served as glacial refugia, allowing relict species and communities to persist. The resulting ecosystems range from coastal wetlands and Colchic forests along the Black Sea, through broadleaved and coniferous mountain forests and the steppes and semi-arid landscapes of eastern Georgia, to the alpine grasslands and glacial environments of the Greater Caucasus.

Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia (MEPA)

MEPA is the government body that develops and implements state policy in the fields of environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management and agriculture. It operates through a number of subordinate agencies, including the National Forestry Agency, the Agency of Protected Areas, the National Environmental Agency, and the National Agency for Sustainable Land Management and Land Use Monitoring. These and other agencies produce geospatial data on forests, protected areas, water resources, climate, land use etc. This information supports decision-making within the Ministry and is also provided to the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

This ecosystem diversity, together with increasing anthropogenic and climatic pressures, requires accurate and regularly updated ecosystem monitoring. Through participation in the WEED project, MEPA therefore expects to map Georgia's ecosystems at national and regional levels using the WEED toolbox, integrating existing national datasets such as National Forest Inventory (NFI) plot data. These maps are expected to establish concrete basis for the long-term monitoring of ecosystem extent and change. The resulting data will inform evidence-based environmental and land-use policies, support the development of remote sensing-based ecosystem accounts, and strengthen Georgia's biodiversity monitoring and national and international reporting.