In the present era of environmental and industrial change, maintaining biodiversity is essential. Doing so not only protects species and habitats but also brings benefits for society in the form of resulting ecosystem services. In order to conserve biodiversity and fulfill the obligations defined by various international conventions and the Association Agreement (AA), the Georgian Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource Protection (MoENRP) initiated the Law on Biodiversity in 2015. The preparation process for that law first started in 2013.

After the draft version of the Law on Biodiversity became available in June 2017, the MoENRP initiated a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) in order to analyze the major positive and negative impacts the new legislation might have in relation to its objectives. In undertaking this effort, the MoENRP was supported by the German Cooperation (GIZ). The results of this RIA are presented in this report.

The draft law is related to a large number of stakeholders, each of whom has been grouped into four categories based on their interest in the law and their ability to influence the process. The first group is the high influence/high-interest group that includes the MoENRP and its departments, NACRES, the international community (GIZ, UNDP), and other experts. Stakeholders in this group are interested in biodiversity conservation and have the power to affect the law-making process. The second group – the low influence/high-interest group – is interested in biodiversity issues either because it benefits from them or cares about conservation, but this group has low power to influence the process. This group includes the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), Green Alternative, individual farmers, cooperatives, and private sector representatives. The third group is the high influence/low-interest group that includes stakeholders with a high capacity to affect the law-making process, but who are not interested in biodiversity conservation. This group contains the Ministry of Energy (MoE) and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development (MoESD).

The last group is the low influence/low-interest group that contains stakeholders with relatively little connection to the law, but who are not completely unrelated to the topic of biodiversity. This group includes the Ministry of education and Science (MoES), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and the National Intellectual Property Center of Georgia (Sakpatenti).