Kolkheti

Kolkheti National Park was established in 1998 on the Black Sea coast, in western Georgia, and protects some 289 km² around Lake Paliastomi and the peat bogs and wetlands of the Colchis plain. In 2021 UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List as part of the property Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands.

Colchis is a biogeographical refuge of the first order: during the Quaternary glaciations, while temperate forest disappeared from almost all of Europe, this strip between the Caucasus and the Black Sea kept humid and mild conditions, and with them a relict Tertiary flora related to that of the Hyrcanian forests of the Caspian.

Its peatlands are especially singular. They are percolation mires, an uncommon type in which the water moves slowly through the peat mass rather than standing, and which here reach thicknesses of several metres. The complex of wetlands, lagoons and flooded forest is a crucial staging area on the Black Sea flyway, with important concentrations of waterbirds, and the coastal waters hold sturgeon. The park faces pressure from agricultural drainage, peat extraction and port infrastructure projects along the coast.