Honorary Georgian Consul Thelmo Cunanan Jr is helping the Agency of Protected Areas (APA) of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources develop Georgia’s first marine national park. The area under study is located on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, near the city of Batumi. Together with Honorary Georgian Consul in Denmark Marianne Bols, Consul Cunanan is also working on a program that will focus on reforestation of the Caucasian fir tree.

Consul Cunanan has been holding multiple meetings with the officials of the APA at its headquarters in Tbilisi, to develop a framework for the marine park development. Consul Cunanan is bringing Philippine marine biology experts, who have extensive experience in managing and developing their country’s own marine protected areas. The Philippines is composed of 7,100 islands and has many marine national parks. Consul Cunanan and his team will work closely with the APA and relevant stakeholders and corporate sponsors to establish the necessary guidelines for Georgia’s first marine national park.

The Philippines and Georgia have strong working relationship with regard to the environment. In 2014, Consul Cunanan established the friendship agreement between the APA and its counterpart in the Philippines, the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB). This is Georgia’s first such relationship with the Philippines and Asia. Both agencies vowed to cooperate in the areas of environment protection, eco-tourism and management, and sustainable development, among others.

With regard to reforestation, Consuls Cunanan and Bols are planning to plant at least one hectare of Caucasian fir trees in an area in the Borjomi region, to serve as a “tree nursery” to propagate the species. Plenty of Georgia’s Caucasian forests were destroyed during the 2008 conflict. Consuls Cunanan and Bols will bring young fir trees that are grown in Denmark and plant them in Georgia.