EcoLur
Almost no schoolchildren are left at schools in some regions in Armenia. The most miserable situation is in Meghri area, Syunik Region. ENPI EAST FLEG 2 working group found out this fact during its visits to near-forest communities in Syunik, Lori and Tavush. The school in Litchq village, Meghri area, has only 5 pupils. Neighboring Tashtun village has 3 pupils, out of which two left the village for their holidays, and if they don’t return, the village will have only one pupil – village head’s son. If migration causes from Armenia are well-known, i.e. low social conditions in the village, absence of effective programs and drastic decrease in purchase prices, which means drastic reduction of market, as well as non-protectiveness of people from any pressure, these problems acquired truly disastrous nature in remote villages. We wanted to speak with the villagers about the forest, but it turned out that under such hard conditions a few are interested in forest and nature. Here is almost literal recording of the meeting with the villagers: Litchq Village: “…The village is dying, and we speak not about us, but about the village. Nobody will live here: we are the last to live. The school has 5 pupils, while nobody thinks that a village is dying in such wonderful place and beautiful nature...Just have a look what is going on… We have cows, but the milk is collected at 80 AMD per liter, which is cheaper than water. Who will stay here? Now it’s summer season, but in several days all will leave, and everywhere will be empty. Now they want to open a mine (Litchq copper mine by “Tatstone” LLC), but we are against…People from Meghri are settled here, who say that they are “for” the mine… We don’t know why they are here, but nobody is listening to us. Theirs is a town, ours is a village. They want to get working places here… they were given promises, but we will again experience problems with water… The gas pipeline runs under our village, but we don’t have any gas. We use wood and annually burn over 10 cum. It’s hard to get more, as we are located next to “Arevik” National Park, where there is no fallen deadwood we are entitled to. It’s strictly forbidden in the national park…” Litchq Village Head Hovhannes Mirzoyan: “As a village head I officially declare that so far I don’t know where the borders of the national park are and where the borders of our village are. I asked for the maps but haven’t received them and I don’t know where our authorities finish. I am not pleased with this national park, though I have signed this agreement. But after signing it our village has nothing. The most important issue for us is authorities and mapping. What about the forest, the community consisting of 43 families uses up to 10 cub wood each. Only elderly people have remained in the village, who don’t burn that much…Sure, we all want to conserve nature and forest, but only one desire is not enough. We need programs…we are willing, but we have problems with human resources… That’s why we need programs. Residents: “Syrian Armenians can resettle in our village…We would give them villages, let them live here and revive the village, they would help to revice the village…”. Village head: “I agree”. Tashtoun Village “… We don’t have enough strength to keep these 40 families… Our school has 3 pupils… In the summer only one pupil lives in the village, the son of our village head…We have 5 ha of apple orchards. Who eats or buys them? 99% of the harvest gets spoilt and this year we will have the same picture. There is no collecting point. Who will drive 400 km for the apples, waste the petrol to take apples somewhere they cost pennies – 40 AMD for one kg. We have also apples, pears and honey. We can’t even sell dried fruit to have some profit. We live in remote area and we lose everything…No gas. We use wood up to 20 cum…we have community forests and the forests of Arevik National Park – 600 ha, but we almost don’t use them. Two years ago we a gold extracting plant was opened here (owned by “AT Metals” LLC). The plant operated for one year, but then it closed down, as these technologies couldn’t extract the right amount of gold. Now they say we will change the technologies, and we again gave our agreement. If we had any other proposal, but we have none. Nobody is proposing anything to us”.
Lichq village
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Tashtun village
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August 31, 2015 at 17:42