On the Approval of the Procedure for Drawing up a Balance Sheet for Land and Registering Agricultural Land Resources

Ordinance No 166

of 8 April 2021

Tbilisi

On the Approval of the Procedure for Drawing up a Balance Sheet for Land and Registering Agricultural Land Resources

Article 1

In accordance with Article 14(2)(b) of the Law of Georgia on the Determination of Designated Purpose of Land and on Sustainable Management of Agricultural Land, the attached Procedure for Drawing up a Balance Sheet for Land and Registering Agricultural Land Resources shall be approved.

Article 2

This Ordinance shall enter into force upon its promulgation, except for Article 5 of the Procedure for Drawing up a Balance Sheet for Land and Registering Agricultural Land Resources approved by this Ordinance.

Article 3

Article 5 of the Procedure for Drawing up a Balance Sheet for Land and Registering Agricultural Land Resources approved by this Ordinance shall enter into force on 1 December 2023.

Prime Minister                                                              Irakli Garibashvili

Procedure for Drawing up a Balance Sheet for Land and Registering Agricultural Land Resources

Article 1. General provisions

1. The purpose of drawing up a balance sheet for land and registering agricultural land resources is to collect and manage existing and created information on the land fund of Georgia, thus creating the basis for managing the agrarian and economic sectors of the country according to contemporary challenges, providing state control of land use and protection, increasing land productivity, and implementing other measures related to the regulation of spatial planning, land possession, and land use and administration.

2. The Procedure for Drawing up a Balance Sheet for Land and Registering Agricultural Land Resources (hereinafter ‘the Procedure’) has been developed in accordance with the Law of Georgia on the Determination of Designated Purpose of Land and on Sustainable Management of Agricultural Land.

3.  The purpose of this Procedure is to determine unified principles for drawing up a balance sheet for land and registering agricultural land resources based on which a unified database on the land fund of Georgia will be established.

Article 2. Definition of terms

1. For the purposes of this Procedure, the terms used herein shall have the following meanings:

a) land fund of Georgia - agricultural lands and non-agricultural lands in the territory of Georgia, including lands covered with forests and water bodies;

b) balance sheet for land - aggregate information on the legal and factual state of the land fund of Georgia which is created according to data determined by Article 4 of this Procedure; 

c) cadastral data - natural, commercial, legal, environmental, and economic data on agricultural land;

d) natural data of land - data on the location, climate conditions, and geographical and other natural conditions of land;

e) commercial data of land - data on the commercial opportunities of land in the agricultural production process;

f) legal data of land - land data registered in the Public Registry of the Legal Entity under Public Law called the National Agency of Public Registry (hereinafter ‘the Public Registry’) within the governance of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia;

g) environmental data of land - data on the condition of land caused by endogenic, exogenic, and anthropogenic impacts;

h) economic data of land - indicators of the economic evaluation of the consequences of agrotechnical and economic activities carried out on a plot of land;

i) state forest - state forests and their resources;

j) cadastre of agricultural plots of land - a unified database module where agricultural land resources are registered according to their constituent plots of land and their cadastral data.

2. In addition to the terms defined in paragraph 1 of this article, the terms defined in the Law of Georgia on the Determination of Designated Purpose of Land and on Sustainable Management of Agricultural Land shall be also used for this Procedure.

Article 3. Unified database

1. The unified database is an electronic system for recording and managing data on the land fund of Georgia as provided for by this Procedure.

2. The unified database shall record data of the land fund of Georgia, including received data on agricultural land resources and/or data created by the Legal Entity under Public Law called the National Agency for Sustainable Land Management and Land Use Monitoring (hereinafter ‘the Agency’).

3. Combined information on the legal and factual state of agricultural land resources recorded in the unified database shall be entered in the balance sheet for land, and information on plots of land constituting agricultural land resources and their cadastral data shall be entered in the cadastre of agricultural plots of land.

4. The establishment and management of the unified database shall be ensured by the Agency.

5. In the unified database, the relevant information shall be entered on the basis of data developed by a person determined by the legislation of Georgia as authorised to generate/protect data, and also by the Agency, including metadata.

6. The Agency shall not be responsible for the correctness of data submitted by a person determined by the legislation of Georgia as authorised to generate/protect data.

7. An authorised person shall deliver the data determined by paragraphs 2 and 5 of this article to the Agency within not later than 40 calendar days after the request.

Article 4. Drawing up a balance sheet for land

1. A balance sheet for land shall include the following aggregate information:

a) on the number of areas registered and not registered in the Public Registry of the land fund of Georgia;

b) on the distribution of land areas constituting the land fund of Georgia according to ownership and intended purpose;

c) on the distribution of agricultural land areas according to category;

d) on cultivated (factually used) and uncultivated agricultural land areas;

e) on land areas of state forest territory;

f) on land areas of protected territories;

g) on land areas covered by surface water bodies.

2. In addition to the information determined by paragraph 1 of this article, other additional information may be included in the balance sheet for land, the list of which shall be specified by the form of the balance sheet for land provided for by paragraph 5 of this article.   

3. Until the state jurisdiction of Georgia over the whole territory of Georgia is fully restored, data of land areas in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region (former the Autonomous Region of South Ossetia) shall be recorded in the balance sheet for land taking into account the current state of these territories (before occupation).

4. Information on the lands determined by paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article shall be recorded in the balance sheet for land according to total land areas of both the entire territory of Georgia and administrative-territorial units, in hectares.

5. The form of balance sheet for land shall be approved by the Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia upon the recommendation of the Agency.

Article 5. Publication of balance sheet for land

1. The balance sheet for land shall be published electronically on the websites of the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture of Georgia (hereinafter ‘the Ministry’) and the Agency ( www.mepa.gov.ge ) and annually on a mandatory basis, according to the data as of 31 December of the reporting year, by not later than 1 July of the following year.

2. The balance sheet for land may be also published in a tangible form.

Article 6. Recording of agricultural land according to plots of land

1. Agricultural land resources shall be recorded in the unified database by plots of land according to agricultural plots of land registered in the Public Registry and cadastral data as determined by this Procedure.

2. In accordance with paragraph 1 of this article, information on plots of land shall be entered into the unified database consistently, taking into account the acquisition (creation) of such information and/or amendments to it. 

3. The form of registration of agricultural land resources according to plots of land shall be developed by the Agency.

Article 7. Preparation of thematic maps related to land use

On the basis of the cadastral data available in the unified database, the Agency shall be authorised to develop and issue thematic maps, plans, schemes, etc. related to land use.

Article 8. Accessibility of data recorded in the unified database

The Agency shall ensure the accessibility of the data that it generates, in accordance with the procedure established by legislation.