Kolkheti National Park and Paliastomi Lake

Kolkheti National Park protects what remains of the marshy Colchis lowland, where the Rioni and a web of smaller rivers reach the Black Sea around Poti. Its land is shared between Samegrelo and Guria, across the Zugdidi, Khobi, Senaki, Abasha and Lanchkhuti districts, and it is a patchwork of peat bogs, reed beds, waterlogged woodland and slow, dark rivers. For visitors the centre of it all is Paliastomi Lake, a broad, shallow lake fringed with reeds just south of the city and connected to the sea. Since 2021 the park has formed part of the Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands World Heritage Site.

Most people explore it by boat. Routes range from about 3 km to more than 10 km, crossing the open lake and then following the Pichori River between banks of overhanging trees, where herons and cormorants hunt along the edges. Some 194 bird species have been recorded in the park, and the spring and autumn migrations along the Black Sea coast bring the largest numbers. Walking and horse riding are also offered. Ask at the visitor centre about current routes, and go out in the morning, when it is cooler and the birds are busier.

A Kolkheti nature reserve was created here in 1947 to protect the largest surviving wetlands of the Colchis plain. The national park followed in 1998 and 1999, set up under Georgia's Integrated Coastal Management Project with World Bank support. In 1997 the Wetlands of Central Kolkheti were added to the Ramsar list of internationally important wetlands, and in 2021 UNESCO included the park in the Colchic Rainforests and Wetlands World Heritage Site, together with forests and mires in Adjara.