“Georgians are a very hospitable nation, which is a great value for tourism development. But the goal should not be to bring masses of backpackers, but to control the amount of visitors and make the most of those, who come,” states Olaf Malver, an ecotourism activist and a Chief Exploratory Officer at Natural Habitat Adventures in Georgia. 

Olaf Malver is the founder of adventure travel company Explorers´s Corner. He travelled the World, lead kayaking tours on all seven seas, visited more than 80 countries, Greenland or Antarctica included and nowadays, he explores Georgian mountains, searching for places undiscovered not only by tourists, but by people in general. 

As a consequence of that, he has also seen the impact of climate change with his bare eyes. Together, we talked about his experiences and perspective on the strategies that could help Georgia to develop into a modern, democratic country. According to him, environment should be one of the most important values in that process.

Ecotourism as a way to Georgia´s development. What on Earth Georgia Episode 12

What connects gender and climate change? The crisis affects women more than men. As is it still mainly women, who take care of the household and gardening, they are the one affected by lack of water or extreme weather conditions. Women are also mainly responsible for kids, so it´s not that easy for them to travel and they are often left behind in the places of crisis. 

Women need to be engaged in decision making processes, as they deal with the environment differently than men, they have different needs and their voices need to be heard. That are some of the goals that the NGO Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) in Georgia and other countries. 

The head of the branch office of WECF in Georgia, Anna Samwel, was a guest of What on Earth Georgia Podcast, pointing out the main areas of gender equality and climate change.

Gender and Climate change. What on Earth Georgia Episode 13

“Our motto is that there is no bed weather, just bed clothing” states Tamara Chakvetadze, who established the first forest kindergarten in Georgia called Bunebare. The pupils in this kindergarten spend childhood in the woods.

There are no walls -just trees, there are no toys - just mud, sticks and animals. No matter that it rains or snow, children play outside the whole day. Every day, there is a different playground. According to Tamara, by staying in the nature children also learn how to protect it. They learn its value.

She hopes that in the future, all kindergartens and schools will have time spend in nature in their curriculums. In this episode, we talk about the concept of forest kindergarten, what are the benefits and what are the issues they face.

Bunebare: Childhood in the woods. What on Earth Georgia podcast Episode 14

Walking down the streets of Tbilisi is almost an oxymoron. Often there are no pathways and if there are some, cars are using them as a parking space, so pedestrians have to walk on the road anyway. Finding the crossing of road could be difficult and crossing the road anywhere deadly dangerous. Also the underground passages are not always spaced out logically. Solution is better urban planning. 

Sarah Cowles is a landscape architect and a founder of a company Ruderal, which specializes in this field. Her main interest is in design of outdoor areas, such as parks and different kind of greenery in the city. But aside of that, she tries to return the land to the people, give them the feeling they can change something about the environment that surrounds them. She´s doing that via several projects, one of which, the Arsenal Oasis in Svanetis Ubani and Avlabari neighborhoods, got the Lila 2021 Special Jury Award in September. 

Together with Sarah, we were talking about the opportunities for landscape architecture in Tbilisi, what people could do and how proper urban planning can protect Tbilisi from future floods and fires.

Does urban planning exist in Tbilisi? What on Earth Georgia 15

How can we expect people to know about the environmental issues, if media don´t inform about it, or don´t say the whole story? And how can journalist write about environmental issues, if they don´t know the basic terms? 

With Tamtuka Jinjolava, doctor of Mass Media Communication, we talked about the coverage of environmental topics in the most popular Georgian media. According to Jinjolava, more specialization and expertise from the side of journalists is needed. Also the audience need to show interest. 

What are the hot topics and why should we pay attention? Who is best in covering environmental issues and why? What is the responsibility of journalist, what is on the audience and what on politicians? Listen to another episode of What on Earth Georgia.

Does urban planning exist in Tbilisi? What on Earth Georgia 15

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