Rati Japaridze

Economic and Environmental Affairs Officer

OSCE Programme office in Nur-Sultan

Mr. Rati Japaridze is an Economic and Environmental Affairs Officer at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Programme Office in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan from April 2015. Prior to commencing his work in the OSCE Nur-Sultan, Rati worked for two years in the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection of Georgia in a position of Chairman at the Agency of Protected Areas (National Parks Administration). As an Agency Chairman, he was personally responsible for overall functioning of an entity employing up to 500 individuals both at Central Apparatus based in Tbilisi and 19 Protected Area Administrations around the country; the total size of territory under jurisdiction covered 8.6% of the country. He devised, implemented and monitored initiatives aimed at developing protected areas in Georgia with a budget of USD 6 Million.

For the period of 2010 – 2013, he was working as Program Coordinator & Forest Consultant, FLEG Program in the World Bank, Tbilisi, Georgia and ensured implementation of the program according to the terms of agreement signed between implementing partners and the Georgian Government. In 2005-2007 Rati Japaridze headed World Bank’s Project Implementation Unit at Georgia’s Ministry of Environment where he implemented all major donor-funded projects with a portfolio of over 40 million USD.

Rati Japaridze is a graduate of Columbia University with a major in International Affairs (1997-99) under Edmund Muskie Fellowship Programme. He is also a graduate of Germany’s Vilm Academy and a recipient of Klaus Toepfer Fellowship in Protected Areas Management (2013-2014).