Second stage of Forester-taxators training
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture has begun the second phase of the retraining of foresters-taxators. At the initiative of the National Forestry Agency, a special internship program was prepared last year. 15 young people with forest education underwent retraining and were employed in forest inventory. In 2020, the Agency continues to work in this direction. The Head of the National Forestry Agency, Archil Nikoleishvili, met with 22 forestry graduates and discussed with them the importance of developing this industry. The development of the industry in many respects depends precisely on young qualified personnel, the deficit of which has been observed in the sector over the years, respectively, retraining and employment on inventory work is one of the priorities of the Agency. Forest inventory is the basis for sustainable forest management, as well as the planning of all types of forestry activities. Its audit period is 10 years, however, the latest inventory materials in the country are dated 1997. A big problem is the lack of qualified personnel in the field (the so-called taxators), who can carry out both fieldwork and the preparation of forest management plans. The National Forestry Agency has been able to restore this process since 2013. To date, information on quantitative and qualitative indicators of the forest has been updated for an area of 232,316 hectares of forest territory managed by the Agency, and 10-year forest management plans have been developed.
