New Project Aimed at Forest and Pasture Sustainable Development

EcoLur 

The rehabilitation of 2000 ha of pastures, as well as rehabilitation of forest belts (60 ha) is targeted in theVardenis sub-region of Gegharkunik Region is planned in the frames of UNDP/EU “Sustainable management of pastures and forest in Armenia to demonstrate climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits and dividends for local communities”

The project's objective is to demonstrate a sustainable natural resource management model in degraded mountainous pastures and forests of Armenia which increases ecosystems’ capacity to sequester carbon under pending climate warning risks, while at the same time retain biodiversity and economic values.

“For the first time we are trying to formally apply the ecosystem approach for the rehabilitation of entire territories, i.e. we don’t consider pastures separately and forests separately, we consider complex rehabilitation scheme,” said Programme Policy Adviser at UNDP Armenia Georgi Arzumanyan after the end of the kick-off workshop in his interview with EcoLur. He also valued the establishing of a capacity to sequester carbon. “The main cause of the absence of the land layer is the indicator of carbon sequestration. This project seeks to cover this and to introduce carbon monitoring system, which hasn’t existed so far,” Georgi Arzumanyan said. Under the assessment, due to the rehabilitation carbon sequestration will increase by 14,250 tons, and in this case it will enable to reach increase in carbon sequestration in plants by 9,200 tons.

Together with project advantages Georgi Arzumanyan also mentioned some problems, “The main problem I see here is the project sustainability. There is a problem at the level of communities – no sense of responsibility in case of a momentous benefit. The community doesn’t feel it owns the forest, that’s why its attitude is aimed more at exploiting rather than its conservation,” Georgi Arzumanyan said.

“For Sustainable Human Development” NGO Chairperson, UNEP National Committee Chairperson Karine Danielyan also positively assessed the project. “There are question which should be clarified. In general, I positively assess the project, particularly as it embraces Lake Sevan basin, where our projects are implemented, I do value their combination,” Karine Danielyan mentioned.

The project is funded by the European Union (1 million Euros) and co-funded by the UNDP (100,000 UAS), its duration is 42 months (2013-2016).

September 16, 2013 at 11:41