EcoLur
Studies in forest sector in recent 10 years are few, while figures contradict each other starting from the forest cover: so far the official figure is from 1991 – 11.2% forest-covered area. Some official documents say this figure is 8%, but according to our figures and data, forest-covered areas in Armenia account for 8%, as Nazeli Vardanyan, Director of “Armenian Forests” NGO, said at the press conference held at EcoLur Press Club on 30 September. In her opinion, the reduction of forest areas is conditioned with development of mining problems and social problems. Nazeli Vadanyan outlined the activities of Teghut CJSC, as an example, which develops Teghut copper and molybdenum mine.
“There is a governmental resolution, which says if forest is felled down, double-size forest shall be planted in the given or adjacent areas. It was planned that “Teghut” CJSC should have felled down 357 ha and planted 714 ha forest. According to their report, they have already planted 69 ha of area. We were lucky to see these areas. We could see some branches in Shnogh village, which couldn’t be names trees and a part had been burnt down. You couldn’t find 17 trees in 17 ha of area. We have also visited Odzun Village, where we asked the villagers about the activities of “Teghut” CSJC. We were told the company planted oak seeds on the top of the mountain, where there is no forest at all, which is not taken care of at all. I don’t know who had such a brilliant idea to recover forest in Odzun with seeds and without water, which is not feasible even in plant nurseries. As a matter of fact, nothing has been done in these areas,” Nazeli Vardanyan said.
What about the next reason, Nazeli Vardanyan mentioned that you can feel you are in another era when you visit villages in Armenia, particularly borderline villages. Because of hard social conditions people can’t make use of gas and electricity and mainly use firewood. “So the whole load falls on the forests. All villages use firewood: one family annually uses 15-20 cum firewood. These estimates show that not 40,000 cum is felled down in Armenia, but 10 time more,” Nazeli Vardanyan noted.
The governmental resolution says each near-forest community resident is entitled to 8 cum of free-of-charge fallen deadwood, but all the villagers highlight there is no fallen deadwood, as the lower slope of the forest gets higher and these areas get farther. The villagers can’t get this fallen deadwood because of no roads, distance or non-availability.
Several days ago “Pan-Armenian Environmental Front” civic initiative disseminated a video on illegal tree felling in Kapan forestry enterprise of “ArmForest” SNCO.
PEF member Levon Galstyan noted that they visited 3 spots and detected 70 illegally felled down trees in about 15-20 minutes. These areas are located next to Shikahogh reserve. As far as we understood, Zangezour biospheric complex can also face some hazards in case of certain developments and tree felling can shift to these areas.”
“ArmForest” SNCO Kapan Forestry Enterprise Garik Mirzoyan said in regard with Galstyan’s statement, “We received the alarm signal and our employees visited the spot, where they recorded and documented and sent the paper to Police Kapan Division, where I filed a motion to fire Tchakaten forestry head and guard,” Garik Mirzoyan said.
He also said that they recorded 141 illegally felled down trees and 11 branches and a criminal case has already been initiated. It turned out that tree fellers were from Agarak and Meghri towns and they have already given testimonies in the police.
Garik Mirzoyan also presented info illegal tree felling in Kapan forestry enterprise for 2014 and 2015. According to him, 13 cases of illegal tree felling were recorded in 2013 with about 125 felled down trees, 152 trees in 2014 and 3 cases in 2015.
In his turn, Levon Galstyan presented the official data by “ArmForest” SNCO, which are not reliable for the environmentalist, “According to these figures, 32.766 illegal tree felling was recorded in 2004, while this number for 2014 was 1063. Is there anyone in Armenia, who will believe these figures and say how these figures are substantiated?”
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October 01, 2015 at 12:20