EcoLur
'Forest in Armenia is used as firewood and forests are felled down not by near-forest community residents, but by businesses,' said Inga Zarafyan, President of 'EcoLur' Informational NGO at 'Armenia: Beacon for Expansion of Sustainable Energy' international conference. 'With its own resources, Armenia ensures only 8.3% of the energy demand, which also includes biofuel. We do understand that under biofuel we mean forests. No one can imagine the volume of the forest being felled down. You shouldn't believe that forests are cut down by near-forest community residents, that's not true. No resident can enter the forest and cut down huge trees, which are sold at the market at a price of 24,000-25,000 AMD for one cum. This is a business monopoly which made our population become energetic poor,' Inga Zarafyan said. She mentioned that the residents in the region mainly heat their houses with wood and most of this wood is illegal.
Inga Zarafyan made a reference to the research carried out by the Center for Economic Development and Research upon the UNDP's assignment, ' In 2014, the households in Armenia consumed around 2 million cum wood, which exceeds by around 70 times the volume of the wood stored by 'ArmForest' SNCO. 'Correct solutions are needed in this regard: no effective solutions will be adopted without economic assessments and a decrease in prices in the gas sector,' she added.
Head of Energy Efficiency and Technical Norms of RA Ministry for Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources Vahagn Atayan responded, 'Definitely, forests are cut down illegally. The government is making efficient attempts to exclude illegal tree felling, while near-forest communities are provided aid in the form of fallen deadwood. At the same time, the Energy Ministry put forward a program on providing soft loans for solar water heaters in the communities having no gas supply, which will solve certain problems in the near-forest communities. We are trying to find other solutions, which will save our forests.
December 05, 2018 at 18:56