On March 20, 2025, the Government of Armenia approved the proposal to sign the draft agreement for the first amendment to "RESILAND: Resilient Landscapes of Armenia Program" grant agreement.
The agreement was initially signed by the Republic of Armenia with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association on May 22, 2024. The program is aimed at implementing the government's commitments in the environmental protection sector. It encompasses biodiversity protection, recultivation of abandoned and ownerless mines, forest restoration, as well as corresponding legislative field regulation.
The necessity for the agreement amendment stems from the development strategy enshrined in the Armenian Government's program for 2021-2026 . The planned measures are derived from several priorities of the Government's program, such as sustainable forest management, biodiversity conservation, effective management of specially protected natural areas, recultivation of territories disturbed by subsoil use, and approximation of national legislation to EU environmental protection legislation in accordance with the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.
According to the project justification, the program's total budget is 9,100,000 USD. The program is simultaneously included in Armenia's 2025 state budget with 679.6 million AMD in funding, without requiring co-financing. "At the time of agreement signing, available financial resources amounted to 6,946,863 USD. The remaining part of the project budget was planned to be transferred in subsequent stages through an amended agreement version. Considering that the funds allocated by the multi-donor trust fund are now available, it is planned to make changes to section 3.01 of the agreement by revising financial allocations. With this amendment, instead of 1,496,863.0 USD, 2,506,748.0 USD will be allocated," the official document states.
March 26, 2025 at 16:18