EcoLur
Forest planning plans proposed by “ArmForest” SNCO are not substantiated. These plans incorrectly show forest-covered territories and forest structures, light forest is mentioned instead of dense forests and the contrary. On the basis of these plans one can’t conduct planned felling, sanitary felling and even reforestation. The data obtained by remote sensing method point out these facts for forest-covered territories in Armenia. The GTZ office in Armenia presented the results at Center for Forest Monitoring on 18 March. Representatives from “ArmForest” SNCO of Agriculture Ministry, ENPI-FLEG and NGOs took part in this presentation.
The data turned out to be shocking. Thus in accordance with the management plans for forest enterprises, forest –covered territories make up 349,000 ha. If to apply new technologies, space images show most of this part is light forest or no forest at all. Sometimes this difference comprises up to 70%. For example, the forest in Tchambarak is in felling progress, but it is not included in the plan maps. “One should have an idea about the situation and then to determine how to use forest. While now it turns out we have a closet where we think we have six chairs, but, as a matter of fact, there are no chairs at all,” said GTZ “Sustainable Development for Biodiversity Management in Protected Territories and Forests” program representative Ayser Ghazaryan, “if to ignore these data, consequences can be most serious ones.”
Even fragmentary data make it obvious that forest is fell down in attainable places, while unattainable ones are preserved. In this viewpoint, permanent assurances made by “ArmForest” management about the need for permanent felling for the sake of forest conservation become entirely unpersuasive. Statements made by officials that space shooting is not needed are becoming increasingly unconvincing.
It should be noted the program didn’t take into consideration specially protected territories as the Center for Forest Monitoring deals only with the forests administered by “ArmForest”.
Nevertheless, according to our data, the situation here also doesn’t conform to official data. Particularly we speak about “Dilijan” National Park where people raise alarms about illegal felling which are not reflected in official reports in any way.
According to Center for Forest monitoring Deputy Head Ara Mezhloumyan, the Center proposes to refuse from disclosure of information about forest-covered territories while the computation of the whole forest sector is over. The second proposal is to stop events laid down in management plans as these plans are based on incorrect data.
March 21, 2011