NIG-Georgia

National Initiative Group of Georgia..

NIGs’ (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) goal is to promote scientifically justified policy and decision making in the fields of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Overall Sustainable Mountain Development (SMD) throughout the Caucasus with the active involvement of academic, civil and private organizations. Main activities are: Identification of priority issues including needs and challenges; Coordination and information exchange between member organizations; Advocacy to ensure science-based decision making. Moreover, Regional Initiative Group (RIG) represented by all the national NIGs, i.e. Co-chairs of NIGs, is focused on tackling the problems at the regional level.

National Initiative Group of Georgia (NIG Georgia) is an alliance comprised of scientific, civil and private organizations interested and working among others in the fields of Disaster Risk Management (DRM), Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Sustainable Mountain Development (SMD).

NIG Georgia was established in terms of the project Strengthening the Climate Adaptation Capacities in the South Caucasus (SCAC) implemented by the Caucasus Network for Sustainable Development of Mountain Regions (Sustainable Caucasus). Currently, NIG Georgia unites more than 20 representatives from various academic, non-governmental and/or private organizations and individual members.

NIG Georgia is responsible for advocacy of the science-policy interface strengthening. It selects topic for the next years’ work for the spatial planning concept sophistication and integrated balanced regional development in Georgia. In January 2024, David Tarkhnishvili (academic from Ilia State University) and Natalia Bakhtadze Englaender (practitioner from Ecotourism Association) were elected as co-chairs of NIG Georgia for two years.

NIG Georgia members are as follows: Ilia State University (IliaUni) and its institutes like as the Institute of Earth Science and Seismic Monitoring Center, as well as Institute of Ecology; the Tbilisi State University and its institutes like as Institute of Geography and the International School of Economics (ISET), the Department of Human Geography, the Department of Physical Geography, and others particularly; Tbilisi Technical University and its institutes like the Water Institute and the Faculty of Energy of Technical University; the Greens movement Georgia/Friends of Earth; the Caucasus Environmental NGOs Network (CENN); The Biological Farming Association ELKANA; the Energy Efficiency Centre (Covenant of Mayors Representative); the Georgian Environmental Outlook (GEO); the Mountain Development Centre, the Environment and Development- (ED), the Association Rural Development for Future Georgia (RDFG)/DRR Center; the Georgian Eco-tourism Association; the Georgian Insurance Association; GIS and RS Consulting Center; GeoGraphic; Geoland; Red Cross Georgia; ICOMOS Georgia; Fair Trees Fund; National Geographic Georgia;

Georgian Heritage Crafts Association (GILDIA).

Co-Chars:

David Tarkhnishvili

Graduated from Tbilisi State University (Biology, zoology) (1982). PhD in Ecology from Research Inst. of Ecology, Ural Sci. Center at Sverdlovsk (pres. Ekaterinsburg), Russia, 1987. Research – interspecific competition of amphibians. Work experience – Tbilisi State University, Vietnam Tropical Center (1990), Bangor University, UK (1996-1997, post-doctoral fellow), Zoological Research Institute and Museum Al. Koenig, Bonn, Germany (1998; 1999-2003; post-doctoral fellow, researcher).Studies mostly in ecology, biogeography, population genetics and evolution of amphibians and reptiles. Over 100 published research papers. At Ilia State since 2006, employed as a dean of the school of Life Sciences, director of the Institute of Ecology, and dean of the School of Science and Engineering.

Full list of publications at https://www.caucasus-mt.net/People/160

Natalia Bakhtadze Englaender

With more than 20 years of professional experience in tourism, Natalia is working currently only on sustainable approaches and ecotourism initiatives in Caucasus and abroad. She is leading as chairperson professional business association Georgian Ecotourism Association and the same time has since 2017 teaching position at Ilia State University.

Publications: Practice based: How to create ecotourism products (Guidebook 2016), Nature in living culture (Storytelling brochure abut biodiversity of South Caucasus) and diverse tourism strategies for protected areas and regions in Georgia. Nature-Based Tourism Development as a Tool of Community Transformation from Communism to Capitalism: The Georgian Experience / Nato (Natalia) Bakhtadze Engländer & Nato Robitashvili - Tourism Development in Post-Soviet Nations - From Communism to Capitalism / 2020 ISBN : 978-3-030-30714-1