EcoLur
Recently RA Agriculture Ministry organized the discussion of the bill “On Making Amendments and Supplements to RA Forest Code” with the participation of RA Agriculture Ministry Sergo Karapetyan, “National Center for Legislative Regulation” PIU SE Director Armen Yeghiazaryan, “ArmForest” SNCO Director Ruben Petrosyan, RA Agriculture Ministry Forest Department Head Arthur Petrosyan and “Forests of Armenia” NGO Director Nazeli Vardanyan.
The discussions were organized upon the assignment of RA PM Hovik Abrahamyan. “Forests of Armenia” NGO Director Nazeli Vardanyan presented the details of the discussion in her interview with EcoLur, “I told them that site development in the forest is impermissible and its contradicts to a number of laws and doesn’t arise from the interests of the forest. As a result, we will lose the forest. In reply Armen Yeghiazaryna said it’s not mandatory to have construction, as the term is “development”, but here they mean “construction” and not “development”. Armen Yeghiazaryan said it could be a rest zone, so as neighboring villagers can earn a living. I told them that the villagers can’t even repair their roofs, how they can construct a building or who will allow the villagers to do it? Armen Yeghiazaryan said that the forest is an economic sector, which should be regulated: either land category is changed as needed, or forest land is withdrawn from forest fund, it’s better to give it for leasing. I said there would be no difference, as the land area will be leased for 99 years and there will be a building, and no forest will be there, as nobody is going to dismantle the building to construct a tree there.”
Nazeli Vardanyan mentioned that Agriculture Minister Sergo Karapetyan proposed to continue discussions seeing contradiction opinions. In her turn, Nazeli Vardanyan offered to call back the bills from the National Assembly.
May 13, 2016 at 16:03