BOTANICAL GARDEN MAY DISAPPEAR
Lragir.am
25-06-2007 14:49:12
It is heroism to create a botanical garden in the middle of a
semidesert, on a thick layer of tuff, the botanical garden is a
paradise for leisure, but today the botanical garden is endangered,
stated the president of the Botanical Society Nora Gabrielyan, the
vice president Gohar Oganesova and the president of the Association
for Sustainable Development Karine Danielyan in a news conference
at the National Press Club on June 25. They tried to make everyone
hear and realize the necessity to prevent the problems the Botanical
Garden is facing.
Problems began about a year and a half ago when the botanical garden
let 25 out of its 80 hectares to the Armenian Association of Agro
Ecology for the development of ecotourism and authorized to build
cottages on 5 hectares.
With meager funding, with insufficient workers, water supply,
protection, it was viewed as the only way of saving the garden, the
speakers stated. But only at the beginning. Although the president of
the Association is the former vice director of the Botanical Garden
Avet Hairapetyan, the Association breached the agreement signed with
the garden and started to build a high-rise. The City Hall repealed
the contract signed by the Botanical Garden and the Association
thanks to protests of the City Hall, members of parliament and the
society. The Association sued the botanical garden, and the people
who worry about the garden’s fate fear that the decision of the
court will be in favor of the association, especially that there is a
precedent. A general named Ara rented 2 ha of land near the entrance
of the garden, privatized the land secretly from the garden and is
now building something on this land.
The environmentalists remind that the international commitments
assumed by Armenia include environment as well. Namely, by 2010
Armenia must have plants at the botanical garden, which are about to
become extinct, 60 percent of the whole. On the one hand, we develop
ecotourism, on the other hand, we destroy the infrastructures, Karine
Danielyan said. According to the speakers, the garden is not just a
park but also environment and institution for teaching students. "We
are losing our values in primitive market relations," Karine Danielyan
said. The speakers are not against market relations but not in its
present shape. For instance, they propose restoring the greenhouse of
the garden and planting nurslings for the city at the botanical garden.
According to Karine Danielyan, the botanical garden is a universal
value, and with forests being logged all over Armenia this green area
of 80 ha is highly important.