Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Tourists Invited to Hunt Rare Species in Georgia

April 3, 2012

Ani Berukashvili, Netgazeti

American blogger Lynn Hamilton sent petition to the Parliament of Georgia and suggested to save their endangered species.

The petition, which needs 20 000 signatures, was signed online by over 12 000 people throughout the world.

“The beautiful and elegant West Caucasian tur exists only in the western half of the Caucasus Mountains. Yet recently, a Georgian "tourism" company gave a presentation in Las Vegas encouraging Americans to come to Georgia and hunt it, along with other endangered animal species, including the brown bear and Caucasian grouse,” the Petition reads.

Reportedly, Moscow Times also prepared an article about the issue. The article says this is business as usual in Georgia, where animals on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list are more likely to be poached than protected.

The blogger’s petition also notes that “Last year, the authority of Georgia's Environmental Protection Industry was handed over to the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry which has, as its commission, economic development, not protection of natural resources.”

Netgazeti could not find out which concrete company invited tourists to hunt endangered species in Georgia. However, several tourist companies advertise hunting tours online.

Most companies refused to answer Netgazeti’s questions except Concord Travel Georgia.

Concord Travel provides tourists with full information about their service  on their official website. Having paid estimated prices for hunting, tourists can hunt pheasant, Partridge (Alectoris graeca), Hog (Sus scrofa), Coturnix (Coturnix), Wild Chicken (Scolopax rusticola), Chamois, brown bair.

The invoice also provides information about hunting price: one-day hunting costs 250 USD and a tourist should add 400USD for one hunted brown bear.

“Tourists arrive here from various countries; particularly from Cyprus. It is very popular tour and after the government introduced positive amendments to the law, we have more chance to make similar tours more popular,” representatives of the tourist companies state.

The website of the Concord Travel Georgia offers information about concrete months suitable for hunting. The listed months do not coincide with the relevant information about hunting and fishing provided by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

For example, although hunting brown bear is allowed only from November 1 to January 1, the tourist company offers relevant service from October to February. Chamois is allowed to be hunted from December 15 to March 1; the tourist company invites tourists from October to December.

Although the website provides visitors with detailed information, the Company representatives deny information about hunting on endangered species. They claim they do not take tourists to hunt endangered species and tourists have never killed brown bear in Georgia.

The people having signed the petition request the Parliament of Georgia to pay more attention to the issue “to make a quick killing that absolutely jeopardizes Georgia's future eco-tourism industry as a whole.”

News