On April 22, 2021, the Government of Armenia approved NDC of Armenia revised under the Paris Agreement for 2021-2030. According to the revised actions, Armenia has undertaken a commitment to increase the country's forest cover to 12.9% until 2030.
"50 thousand hectares of new forest must be added. If we start this year, we will have to plant 5,000 hectares of new forest per year. Professional skills should be improved, a nursery economy should be developed, and we should grow seedlings with a closed root system. We currently have two greenhouses, soon there will be six. The country will have to grow 15 million seedlings a year. And it is possible, if we get involved, to start working," Ruben Petrosyan said, Advisor to Forest Committee, during on "Forest Problems and Solutions of Armenia Having a Climate Regulatory Role" expert round table held at EcoLur Press Club on May 3, 2021.
Forests and forest lands according to the 1993 state census of forests make up about 11.2% of the country's territory - 460 thousand hectares, out of which 334.1 thousand hectares are forest-covered areas. Meanwhile, according to independent experts, due to deforestation in Armenia, the forest cover has been reduced to 7-10%. Information on changes in forest areas in subsequent years is missing from official documents.
In response to the question of EcoLur expert Victoria Burnazyan, whether 12.9% forest cover will be achieved based on the 11.2% deforestation index or expert calculations, according to which the forest cover is less than 11.2%, Ruben Petrosyan answered that 11.2% was taken as a basis for achieving 12.9% of forest cover in 2030. In other words, the forest cover will increase by 1.7%.
One of the reasons for the inaccuracy of the volume of forest-covered areas is the transfer of forest lands to community lands and vice versa.
"In 2004, a cadastre of communities was conducted, during which it turned out that about 25 thousand hectares of forest land and the forest went to the community as a non-forest, some land came from the community in order to preserve the forest hectare. We now have a forest in the community, which is marked as a pasture. There was an opportunity and they sold it as pasture, started cutting down trees or not. Now we are correcting. If the forest management plans are approved, it will be clear what came back and what went away," Ruben Petrosyan said.
May 19, 2021 at 13:22