ARMENIA TREE PROJECT
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PRESS RELEASE
November 20, 2013
ATP Partners with Businesses, Organizations, and Local Residents to Create
New Green Spaces All Over Armenia and Artsakh
YEREVAN–This fall, Armenia Tree Project (ATP) marks 40 seasons of planting
in communities across the country. ATP’s Community Tree Planting (CTP)
initiative has surpassed 1.2 million trees planted in every corner of
Armenia and Artsakh. The CTP team planted 27,427 fruit and decorative trees
this fall out of a total of 56,184 for the year. Some of the tree types
included apricot, pear, apple, maple, poplar, and Russian olive.
More and more organizations and companies in Armenia are beginning to
practice corporate social responsibility, with a special focus on
environmental issues. This season, ATP continued its partnership of several
years with Synopsys to plant 1,160 evergreens on the campus of Yerevan State
University. Dozens of Synopsys employees volunteered their day to help green
the area. Employees from another company, AtTask, planted 50 trees in the
Avan community of Yerevan.
In November, volunteers from the Armenian Volunteer Corps joined ATP in the
village of Nor Kharberd, just outside of Yerevan, to plant 100 poplars, 70
evergreens, and 80 fruit trees. The trees were donated to the Nor Kharberd
Boarding school for disabled children, where ATP has been planting since
1995. The school is one of the first ATP planting sites, and is home to 286
children, all of whom have some form of disability. To date, over 1,600
trees have been planted at the school.
After years of concerted efforts by philanthropists and other prominent
advocates led by Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR), the brand-new Octet Music
School opened in Gyumri on September 20. Until the opening of the school,
music students had been attending classes in the metal trailers that were
meant to be temporary shelters after the Spitak earthquake of 1988. ATP
provided 312 evergreens and 23 decorative trees for the schoolyard, which
were planted during the opening by guests including British Ambassador
Jonathan Aves, representatives from FAR, and Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan.
The President was joined by Deep Purple lead singer Ian Gillan and Do
Something founder Jon Dee, who have had a special connection with this
project and with Armenia dating back to the tragic earthquake 25 years ago.
Approaching the building, Gillan commented that he had tears in his eyes
upon seeing the school. “I already hear the music which will come from the
school. We managed to revive the music,” said Gillan.
ATP works in collaboration with many local and international development
organizations. Near Gyumri, in the village of Maralik, there was no public
green space until Counterpart International opened the first park in the
area on November 1. ATP provided 665 trees to help green the park. In
Armavir, ATP partnered with Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) to plant
decorative trees and shrubs at four school gardens. In the villages of
Shenik, Karagert, Argina, and Lernagog, 880 Syrian roses, ash trees, and
poplars were planted this season. “These communities were chosen because
COAF has rebuilt schools in each village, and ATP continues to support their
efforts to help the villages prosper,” explained CTP program manager Arthur
Harutyunyan.
Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been a leading partner, with a
three year project initiated in 2012. “Thanks to a major grant from Norway,
the CTP program continued planting fruit trees and shrubs in villages across
Armenia,” Harutyunyan stated. In Syunik, the villages of Halidzor, Vaghatur,
and Khdzoresq received 1,067 trees; in Aragotsn, Arayi recieved 860; in
Lori, Ghurshalu and Karadzor received 940; and in Armavir, Lernamerdz and
Talvorik received 450 trees. “Ninety percent of the trees funded by this
grant were fruit trees, which will help sustain the people in these
communities,” continued Harutyunyan.
This fall, ATP began a new initiative to help Syrian-Armenian refugee
families in Artsakh. Thousands of Armenians from Syria have fled to Armenia
over the past two years as a result of the ongoing conflict. The majority of
these refugees settled in Yerevan, or near the city, but there are several
families who have chosen to move to Artsakh. Two families in Berdzor and 21
in Kovsakan, a village in the very south, will receive 300 pear, plum,
apple, sweet cherry, apricot, and quince trees to help them start over in
Karabagh.
ATP’s mission is to develop Armenia through community-based tree planting
and environmental education. ATP seeks to reverse the loss of Armenia’s
forest cover and to advocate for the sustainable use of our natural
resources. ATP’s three major programs are tree planting, environmental
education, and sustainable development initiatives. For more information,
please visit the website
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
ATP’s CTP program planted more than 27,000 fruit and decorative trees this
fall, including 120 trees with students at Yerevan’s Ohanyan School
ATP has been providing fruit and decorative trees to Nor Kharberd boarding
school for many years; the latest planting was in November with diasporans
from Armenian Volunteer Corps
From: A. Papazian