Lusine Stepanyan, 168 Zham
…According to information we have, the Supervisory Service of Armenian President is intensively conducting checks in the “ArmForest” and detected abuses of incredible extent. Maybe after checks certain facts will be passed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Armenia and a criminal case will be initiated against “ArmForest” Director Martoun Matevosyan. The matter is some forest territories were leased to various people who use them for industrial and agricultural purposes. Meanwhile, those particular land areas were submitted to the government as having a status of special significance. Land areas of agricultural significance were supposed to ensure flow of funds to the budget. The leasers turn out to get income out of the land use for a long time, but didn’t pay any taxes. It’s too naïve to think “ArmForest” acted without informing Agriculture Minister Gerasim Alaverdyan…
DSEGH VILLAGERS PRODUCING CHAIRS AND CUT DOWN BEECH TREES
168 ZHAM
“They laid a road with bulldozers, and in passing they also cut down the trees. Now they can also take out other trees along the road,” said botanist Anush Nersisyan and added that the main species is the high-priced beech. Under her, the beechwood forest is poorly recoverable after felling.
“Today in Dsegh we have 20 woodworking enterprises and 5-6 employees are employed at each one,” says Village Head Garnik Hovsepyan. When he was asked where they take the timber from, he answered, “From our forestry enterprise or neighboring forestry enterprises as a result of legal sanitary felling.”
September 06, 2010