Armenian Nature

[Federate]

Re: Armenian Nature

Karen Karapetyan bans construction on green territories left in Yerevan
February 4, 2011 - 19:24 AMT 15:24 GMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - On February 3, at the meeting with UK Ambassador to Armenia Charles Lonsdale, Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan spoke about the ban on construction on green zones of Yerevan.

Though at present, practically no green zones are left construction –free, as Karapetyan noted, radically new culture of green spaces’ arrangement will be formed in Yerevan.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/society/news/60823/

[Federate]

Re: Armenian Nature

Hope the figures are true. We need to save Teghut forest.
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Government Claims Major Progress In Armenia’s Reforestation


The Armenian state forestry agency claimed on Thursday to have made significant strides in combating illegal logging and reversing the country’s serious post-Soviet deforestation.

Some environmentalists disputed this claim, saying that forests across Armenia remain under grave threat.

The total area of Armenian territory covered by woods has shrunk considerably since a severe energy crisis in the early 1990s which left the country’s population without electricity and central heating. Although the power shortages ended by 1996, many people, especially in rural areas, continued to use firewood to heat their homes.

Commercial logging by local firms producing construction materials and furniture has been another contributing factor.

According to the Armenian government’s Hayantar forestry agency, the number of trees illegally cut down each year has fallen more than tenfold since 2004, to about 2,500 in 2010. The Hayantar director, Martun Matevosian, attributed that to the restoration of the national natural gas distribution network, which gained momentum in the early 2000s and is now largely complete.

“Pressure on the forests from big cities like, Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor has decreased substantially since 2004,” he told journalists.

Matevosian also said Hayantar has since planted 12 million new trees and recreated 30,000 hectares of forest in previously wooded areas. “A very serious restoration work has been carried out,” he claimed.

“The overall number [of trees felled by loggers] has certainly decreased, and we can’t deny that,” said Inga Zarafian, chairwoman of the Ecolur environment protection organization.

But Zarafian contended that the real scale of illegal logging has been much higher than the one reported by the government. “We know for sure that the official figures for illegal logging absolutely do not correspond to reality,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

Zarafian also dismissed the Hayantar data on reforestation. “You don’t get a new forest by simply planting trees,” she said. “You need decades for that.”

Matevosian insisted, however, that large swathes of land across Armenia are now again covered by forests. He said environmentalists and journalists will be able to see that with their owns on a helicopter tour to be organized by his agency this summer.

Zarafian and other environmentalists are now particularly concerned about the Armenian government’s decision to allow open-pit mining operations in the Teghut forest in the northern Lori region that lies atop massive copper and molybdenum deposits. The Teghut project, if implemented, will lead to the destruction of 357 hectares of rich forest, including 128,000 trees.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24092658.html

[Vrej1915]

Re: Armenian Nature

http://ecolur.org/hy/news/sevan/no-fishing-in-sevan/2681/

[Haykakan]

Re: Armenian Nature

RARE PLANTS, HERITAGE TREES GROWING ANEW IN ARMENIA
Jennifer Hattam

Treehugger

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/10/rare-plants-heritage-trees-growing-anew-in-armenia.php

Oct 19 2011

Food & Health

For almost two decades, the Armenia Tree Project has been helping
people pull themselves out of poverty while greening the heavily
deforested Caucasus country. Now, it is also working to rejuvenate
populations of rare and endangered tree species, including heritage
fruit trees that have been growing in the region for 3,000 years.

Loss Of Native Plants

Of the approximately 3,600 plant species in Armenia, 123 are endemic
or found nowhere else on earth, according to the two-volume "Red
Book of Plants and Animals of the Republic of Armenia" released last
year by the country's Ministry of Nature Protection. Many, though,
are becoming endangered due to deforestation, water mismanagement,
and habitat destruction.

"In response to the concern over the loss of native plants, Armenia
Tree Project has a policy of growing only indigenous trees in its three
nurseries," according to the organization's nursery program manager,
Samvel Ghandilyan. "Naturalized" trees introduced long ago are included
in this policy if they have no negative impact on the local ecosystem
and help boost food security by providing fruits and nuts.

Reintroducing Endangered Species The group's nursery in the village of
Karin is now specializing in the propagation of endangered species,
including nine trees and shrubs that are registered as rare in the
Red Book and two -- the alpine maple and the halfsphere rose --
that are in danger of extinction.

The Karin nursery and another in Khachpar are also starting to produce
once-common varieties of apple, peach, pear, and apricot trees --
part of a economic, social, and cultural heritage that dates back
three millennia -- that will be delivered to community planting sites
around the country.

[Mher]

Re: Armenian Nature

Environmental activists plan to spend night in Mashtots Park in Yerevan (PHOTOS)

February 18, 2012 | 19:25

YEREVAN. – Activists gathered together in the Mashtots Park on Saturday as well demanding to stop the illegal construction, environmentalist Mariam Sukhudyan wrote in her Facebook page adding poor policemen stood behind the iron barricades immovable and were freezing.

Earlier Armenian News-NEWS.am informed that an incident occurred between the activists and the policemen in the Park on Friday. Workers tried to resume the construction with the help of policemen but failed. The activists demand the Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan to visit them.

“We will stay here, and our actions will be only peaceful,” activist Yeghia Nersisyan said.

The photos are available here.

http://news.am/eng/news/93908.html

[Federate]

Re: Armenian Nature

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Armenian Nature

God, those cops are so nice, if it was Europe or the US most of them would be arrested by now.

[Armanen]

Re: Armenian Nature

God, those cops are so nice, if it was Europe or the US most of them would be arrested by now.

Right!? But Armenians can only complain, never see the positive.

[Mher]

Re: Armenian Nature

Right!? But Armenians can only complain, never see the positive.

But people shouldn't have to settle with what they have. Yes they should see the positive, but they should always strive to improve it, and there is alot to improve. It takes people like these to advance a country.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Armenian Nature

But people shouldn't have to settle with what they have. Yes they should see the positive, but they should always strive to improve it, and there is alot to improve. It takes people like these to advance a country.

I agree 100% with the protest, this is what should be done to improve the country. The young people need to challenge the authorities and keep improving the country. Those are not the people that are complaining they are improving the country, they are real patriots and if I was living in Armenia I would be one of them. What Armanen is talking about are the people that only see the bad side of things and cannot stop complaining and only see the dark side of everything. When you hear some people describe Armenia you would think it is the worst place on the face of this planet. Look at those cops in the video and how civilised they are and after that go and look for videos about Occupy Wall street.