Georgia Integrated Coastal Management Project: Kolkheti National Park

Private oil terminal development has moved forward without regard for national, international, or World Bank agreements

In 1998, the World Bank approved a USD 4.4 million loan to Georgia Integrated Coastal Management Project (GICMP), which was also funded by a USD 1.3 million grant from the Global Environment Fund, a USD 1 million grant from the Dutch Government, and USD 0.9 million contributed by the Government of Georgia for a total project cost of USD 7.6 million. According to the World Bank Project Appraisal Document, GICMP was designed to “strengthen institutions in Georgia to manage the coastal resources of the Black Sea by developing, testing, and evaluating methods to effectively integrate environmental planning and management into economic development activities along the Black Sea coast,” and “to assist Georgia in meeting its international commitments…includ[ing] conservation of biodiversity at sites of international significance on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, such as the Kolkheti and Kobuleti wetland Ramsar sites.” The two main components of the GICMP project are the establishment of the Kolkheti National Park and the development of the State Consultative Commission on Integrated Coastal Zone Management which is intended to integrate development with environmental management.

In 1999, construction began on the privately-funded Kulevi Oil Terminal within the Kolkheti Ramsar site and part of the Kolkheti National Park. If completed, the Kulevi Oil Terminal would consist of 16 tanks with a capacity of 22,000 cubic meters each serviced by a railway that will transport up to 35 million tons of oil through the National Park. In its final phase, 100,000-ton to 150,000-ton tankers would transport the oil through the National Park marine reserve out of the Black Sea. In order to accommodate these tankers, dredging of an access channel through the marine reserve had already begun.

This development has moved forward without regard for Georgian National, International, or World Bank agreements. Local and international NGOs are petitioning the World Bank Group to call for a stop to all oil-related construction in the Park, Ramsar sites, and marine reserves; to develop Strategic Environmental Impact and Economic Assessments for the Coastal Zone; and to ensure fair public participation in decision-making processes. In response to reports from Green Alternative, a Georgian NGO, the Bank sent a mission to investigate the project and issued a report in September 2001, substantiating most of Green Alternative’s claims but failing to call for a halt to the Kulevi Oil Terminal construction and offering little in the way of resolution of the problems.

In late 2002, construction on the Kulevi Terminal stopped, reportedly as a result of insufficient finances. However, should finances be secured the project will likely continue. In addition, the entire marine area of the Kolkheti National Park lies within areas licensed out to oil and gas companies, and exploration is ongoing.