Environmental Geography and Sustainability: Protected Areas, Pressures and Trade-offs
The Environmental Geography and Sustainability domain tests how well you can explain environmental pressure in Georgia, describe the protected-area system, and weigh development against conservation. Answers need named places and mechanisms, not general statements about protecting nature.
Protected areas
- The system includes national parks, strict nature reserves, managed reserves, natural monuments and protected landscapes. Well-known parks: Lagodekhi, Vashlovani (semi-desert and pistachio woodland), Tusheti, Pshav-Khevsureti, Borjomi-Kharagauli, Mtirala (wet Colchis forest), Kolkheti (wetlands), Javakheti, Kazbegi, Algeti and Machakhela.
- Colchic rainforests and wetlands were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2021; Kolkheti also contains Ramsar-listed mires such as Ispani.
- Coverage is roughly 8% of the territory, below many European neighbours, and the network is fragmented.
Pressures and processes
- Deforestation and illegal logging for fuelwood; overgrazing on alpine pastures causes erosion.
- Landslides and mudflows in the humid west, made worse by road building on steep slopes.
- Desertification and salinization in the dry southeast (Iori–Ajinohuri).
- Glacier retreat in the Greater Caucasus reduces summer meltwater for hydropower and irrigation.
- Urban air pollution in Tbilisi from traffic and old vehicles; weak waste management with low recycling rates.
- Hydropower dominates electricity supply, so new dams create a genuine trade-off with river ecology and fish migration.
Worked example
A proposal would flood 40 km² of river valley, including 12 km² of protected floodplain forest, to add 100 MW of hydro capacity. Reasoning: structure the answer as costs (loss of 12 km² of protected habitat, sediment trapping, blocked fish migration, displacement), benefits (renewable capacity, fewer gas imports, local jobs) and mitigation (environmental flow releases, fish passes, habitat offsetting, choosing already-modified river stretches). Finish with an explicit judgement on whether the loss is acceptable - a list without a conclusion earns partial credit only.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing "pollution is bad" without naming a pollutant, a source or a place.
- Confusing a national park with a strict nature reserve - strict reserves exclude visitors.
- Ignoring transboundary effects: the Mtkvari and Alazani flow on to Azerbaijan, so water quality is also a foreign-policy issue.