'We Wish Forest Not Only Eliminated, But Also Planted,' Shnogh Villagers

EcoLur

'We wish the forest were not only eliminated, but also planted,' Shnogh woman villagers. On May 28 EcoLur working group met Shnogh villagers at Shnogh Women's Council. During their meeting they discussed the problems the locals have with forest.

Shnigh is situated next to Teghout Forest. According to the official data, the significant part of forest – 357 ha must be cut down for the development of Teghout Copper and Molybdenum Mine, while under independent expert assessments this figure makes up more than 1000 ha. More than 60 ha have already been cut down to construct infrastructures for Teghout project. Nevertheless, the locals had no share from the timber, moreover, wood price for one square meter is more than 10,000 AMD. The explanation is as follows: fund should be collected for reforestation process. Thus locals incur double losses, i.e. they lose not only forest, but also they but wood at higher prices. The participants didn’t know a lot about the situation in forest sector, but raised their own problems. 'We would like to have felling places allocated to us in a little bit normal places, so as people wouldn't buy their wood from bad places. It would be preferable if they sold wood nearer to us... at least we would have lower prices,' villagers said. 

They enthusiastically welcomed the offer to participate in the decision-making process of ArmForest. Shnogh youth also was present at the meeting and together with EcoLur they opened 'Shnogh, Lori' hotline of EcoLur Blog. 

June 01, 2011 at 15:56