EcoLur
Forest fires usually occur in autumn in Armenia, when villagers burn down fields expecting for good harvest next year. This action is punishable by law, but even this measure can't refrain the villagers from doing it thus causing huge damage to the forest, as Ruben Petrosyan, Chief Forestry Officer of ‘ArmForest' SNCO of Agricutlure Ministry said at the international conference entitled 'Utilizing Stream Waters in the Suppression of Forest Fires with the Help of New Technologies' held in Botany Institute of NAS RA.
'We had one case, when we detected the person who burnt down and drew up an act. The villager was an elderly person, the damage caused to the forest was rather high, and the court ruled to fine that person in the amount of 85 million AMD. We had to demand this amount, as we incurred the damage. But the village didn't have the fortune to pay this amount,' Ruben Petrosyan said and noted that eventually they didn't get the money. Under Ruben Petrosyan, most cases of forest fires occur in Syunik Region.
'It's good that Armenia is located in such a zone and has 96% of large-leaf forests. It helps us so that we can keep the forest without any essential equipment and machinery so that it would relatively burnt down less as compared with other countries,' Ruben Petrosyan said.
June 19, 2014 at 11:22