Ministry of Nature Protection
RA Ministry of Nature Protection presented the newly published Red Books of Armenia which include 452 species of higher plants and 40 species of mushrooms, and 153 species of vertebrates and 155 species of invertebrates.
Unlike the Red Book published in 1989-90, the new Red Book includes mushrooms and invertebrates for the first time, the species of animals and plants included in the Armenian Red Book have been selected by the categories and criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). All the species have been subdivided into three categories: critical (CR), endangered (EN) and vulnerable (VU). For instance, 12 species of animals (including leopard, Armenian mouflon, red deer, Darevsky's viper, 2 subspecies of the Sevan trout: gegharkuni and summer bakhtak) belong to the CR category, 31 species (including bezoar goat, snowcock, Caucasus grouse, stiff-tailed ducks, spoonbill) belong to the EN category, and 91 species are of the VU category.
As regards the species that have already disappeared from the territory of Armenia, they are striped hyenas and manul cats. The Red book has been published with support of the IUCN, GTZ, WWF, NDP, as well as the American University of Armenia. The research of flora and fauna of Armenia was carried out within the frames of a three-year program of the Armenian government.
May 14, 2010