Destroyed monoculture pine stands replaced by broad-leaf species

EcoLur

The forest is being transformed in Noyemberyan Forest Enterprise (FE) of “Hayantar” SNCO. The monoculture pine stands planted several decades ago are in a very bad condition. At present they are replaced by other broad-leaf species to make the stands more resilient to climate change. The activities in Armenia are implemented by WWF Armenia in the frames of the EU funded project on Increasing the Resilience of Forest Ecosystems against Climate Change in the South Caucasus through Forest Transformation. The field transformation activities are implemented by “Hayantar” SNCO.

The project coordinator SiranushGalstyan in the interview with Ecolur underlined that the use of locally grown planting material adjusted to local conditions was the precondition for the field activities. The project pilot sites make 150 ha, out of which 78 is located in Noyemberyan FE and 72 in Gugarq FE. The project provides certain benefits to the adjacent communities – they are involved in the ongoing field activities and in some years they will have a healthy forest in their vicinity, which is more diverse and resilient to climate changes.

In Noyemberyan FE 30-50 field workers from the adjacent communities are involved in the field works. They complained about the salaries, saying that they work during the whole day and get paid only 40000-60000 dram. The director of FE confirmed that the salaries are low, but the workload norms and the salaries are set up by the state and obligatory for “Hayantar” SNCO.

The project is financed by the European Union, in Armenia the project budget makes 427997 Euro, the project duration is 3 years from 2011 to 2014.

July 22, 2013 at 15:58