Rare Plants, Heritage Trees Growing Anew In Armenia

RARE PLANTS, HERITAGE TREES GROWING ANEW IN ARMENIA
Jennifer Hattam

Treehugger

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.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress