The FINANCIAL — On February 29 BP, on behalf of its oil and gas co-venturers, announced the award winners of its 6th annual Biodiversity Competition in Georgia.
The presentation ceremony, held in the auditorium at the Georgian National Museum, was attended by representatives of all relevant institutions, government authorities, non-governmental organizations and the media.
The competition is part of BP’s and its co-venturers’ commitment to environmental protection in Georgia and this year aimed to find and reward some of the best ideas for raising awareness of the importance of preservation of the country’s biodiversity.
The competition invited entries in two categories – the best biodiversity project and the best biodiversity article and video material. The first category included such topics as critical ecological systems, protected areas, protection of endangered species, and ecotourism and environmental awareness and carried a total budget up to US$25,000. The second category aimed to promote environmental journalism in Georgia with a total budget up to US$1000.
The main prize winner of this year’s competition was awarded to the project “Eco trail and green gate of Mt. Mkinvartsveri” submitted by the non-governmental organization Kazbegi Mountain Tourism House. The project was awarded $ 17,850.
The main goal of the project is to promote eco tourism in the Mt. Mkinvartsveri area, establish a professional guide service, develop information boards and material and raise awareness in the local community to protect biodiversity and enable the development of eco tourism.
In addition, two projects were highly commended by the judging panels:
Botanical Garden and Institute of Botany for their project “Assessment of conservation statues of endemic species of Georgia’s flora threatened with extinction/serious genetic erosion (according to IUCN Categories and Criteria)” The institute was awarded $5000. And the Zoological Park for their project “Summer school – children for an environment protection”. The park was awarded $1800 for project capacity building.
In the environmental journalism category the first prize of $500 was awarded to Emzar Diasamidze for the article ‘Spagnum – new source of wealth” published in the “Batumelebi” newspaper.
The second prize and an award of $300 was awarded to Marika Vacharadze for the article “ Renewable energy” published in the “P.S.” newspaper.
The third prize and an award of $200 dollars was awarded to Irakli Akobia for his TV program – “SOS – Save the Rivers”, broadcasted on Mega TV.
Discussion about this post