The 16th Meeting of Advisory Committee to EUROBATS was held in Tbilisi on April 4-6, 2011.
 
The meeting was attended by 60 representatives from 43 countries. Asian countries, where the bat species are widespread, also participated in the meeting along with European countries.

Georgian delegation was representative. Along with staff persons of Ministry of nature Protection in the meeting organization was evolved assistant-researcher of the Zoological Institute of the Ilia State University, member of the Advisory Committee of the EUROBATS – Ioseb Natradze. Dr. Alexander Bukhnikashvili (head of the vertebrate animal lab) and assistant-researchers – Ioseb Natradze and Andrei Kandaurov, scientists from the Zoological Institute of the Ilia State University, engaged in research and conservation of bats in Caucasus, participated in the meeting. 
 
“Georgia plays a significant role in the region to support the conservation of biodiversity. Every kind of activity that is initiated by government authorities, NGOs, and interested individuals and aims to protect the existing rich biodiversity, are very important. This is the first meeting hosted by Georgia within the events of Year of the Bat,” said Mr. Andreas Streit, Executive Secretary of EUROBATS.
 
The United Nations has declared 2011-2012 as the Year of the Bat, and special attention will be paid to their conservation within the next 2 years. The presence of bat species is one of the important indicators of a clean environment. Bats form more than one fourth of number of all mammalian species, living in Georgia, and thus are important part of the Country’s biodiversity.

Source: Ministry of Environment Protection of Georgia, 2011-04-04 and  CENN  Monthly Bulletin May 02, 2011.

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