The protagonist of this story, Ivane Kupradze, from Borjomi, Georgia, had the dream of becoming a ranger since childhood. Learn about his life story: how hiking trips with his grandfather inspired him to dedicate his whole life to protecting nature and how every day he solves difficult cases such as poaching and illegal logging.

The FLEG II Forest Heroes series is dedicated to people who take care of the forest and save it for future generations. All Forest Heroes have something else in common: they have all worked in partnership with FLEG II. The Program, funded by the European Union, is completing its work this year. The Forest Heroes series is one of the ways to talk about the work done over the 5 years since the launch of FLEG II.

In the video, Ivane talks about trainings organized by FLEG that gave him learn to enforce and prosecute forest violations more effectively. The sessions were the first time Georgian natural resource law enforcement officials received legal and practical training directly from active judges, one from the Borjomi Magistrate Court, whose jurisdiction includes a significant part of Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park in southern Georgia.

“The cooperation between FLEG II, the donors, the Agency of Protected Areas, the LEPL Environmental Information and Education Centre, the High Council of Justice and all of the others who made these trainings possible really paid off,” said Marika Kavtarishvili, FLEG II Country Program Coordinator for IUCN in Georgia. “The rangers and administrators managing our Protected Areas have new tools and new perspectives to help them enforce the laws in place to protect Georgia’s forests and ensure the resources communities need will be there for them now and into the future.”

The video was produced by Panda Agency.