Saving Armenia’s Forests
By Kellyn Betts
CEPF In Focus
July 2, 2007
Approximately half of the land slated to become the Republic of
Armenia’s first model sustainable forest was planted this spring as
part of an effort supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
(CEPF) to help reduce desertification in the country.
By late 2008, the knowledge gleaned from the project is on schedule to
be codified in the country’s first sustainable forestry manual, which
may ultimately prove useful to other countries beyond Armenia’s
borders in the Caucasus biodiversity hotspot.
The Armenia Tree Project (ATP), a nonprofit organization committed to
preventing deforestation in Armenia, planted the area near the small
village of Margahovit in northern Armenia. CEPF supported ATP as part
of its strategic direction of implementing models demonstrating
sustainable resource use in five target corridors in the hotspot.
Project leaders hope that the forestry manual will increase the amount
of knowledge about Armenia’s forests, encouraging communities to
protect their natural resources as well as providing them with the
plans and ability to manage them.
Risk of Desertification
In 2002, Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection released a report
that stated that up to 80 percent of the country is at risk of
desertification.
"The climate in much of… Armenia is not suitable for forests
anymore. The climate has changed over the centuries, which has brought
on an expanding desert landscape," said Jeff Masarjian, ATP’s
executive director and the team leader of the CEPF-supported project.
The 20-hectare plot set aside for ATP’s project represents "quite a
large area for small Armenia," Karen Manvelyan, director of
WWF-Armenia, said.
ATP’s reforestation activities engage local communities. The
organization first grows and nurtures trees at state-of-the-art
nurseries across Armenia, then partners with residents to plant trees
in areas that have been severely depleted of greenery. Local residents
are trained and employed in forestry activities such as coppicing
stumps of trees that were cut down in public areas.
Masarjian said that the forest site should be fully planted by late
2007 with Caucasian pine, beech, maple, oak, chestnut, ash, walnut,
apple, and pear trees, all of which match the mix found in existing
forests.
Partnering with Yale University
A key component of this project is the development of a partnership
between ATP and the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry at Yale
University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
In addition to working together on the model forest, ATP and the
institute will incorporate results and lessons learned into the
sustainable forestry manual. The manual will include area-specific
technical tools for creating a sustainable community forest, and
rangeland management plans that consider the decision tradeoffs among
economic development, biodiversity, and land conservation.
"Everything we’re doing is going to culminate in [the manual, which]
will be used to train forestry students in Armenia, professional
foresters, and communities living in close proximity to the forests,"
Masarjian said.
Supplement to Armenian Forest Policy
The manual is expected to have a significant impact because `the idea
of sustainable forest use is set forth in the [2005] forest code of
the Republic of Armenia, but its [practice] is still limited due to
the lack of up-to-date knowledge/skills,’ Siranush Galstyan, a
conservation officer with WWF-Armenia, said.
The forest code was designed to counteract the effects of the
widespread deforestation that began after Armenia declared its
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. An assessment of Armenia’s
forest cover published in International Forestry Review in 2005 pegged
it at 7 to 8 percent, an all-time low.
"Forest use and management in Armenia has gone largely unchecked since
the collapse of the former Soviet Union and subsequent creation of a
sovereign Republic of Armenia," Zachary Parisa, a graduate student in
Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, said.
Poor economic conditions increased the pressure on forest resources as
fuel wood for heating and cooking, as well as a source of income
through logging. While national policies were created to help
alleviate the economic conditions and reduce ecological impacts, the
government lacked the resources to enforce such policies, resulting in
a common public disregard for forest use.
Building Community Management Plans
The manual is intended to help communities implement an important new
provision in the 2005 Armenian forest code, which "allows communities
to gain management rights to forest land within their community bounds
if they can, among other things, tender a sustainable forest
management plan," Parisa said
Masarjian believes that, because other countries in the Caucasus
Hotspot all share the same broad ecosystem, the manual could
eventually prove valuable for forest management in Georgia, Iran,
Iraq, and Turkey.
Parisa, who is spending the summer in Margahovit, is working with
foresters as well as seven students from the new forestry school at
Armenia’s State Agrarian University to identify and document plants in
the existing forests. One of the goals is to catalog non-wood products
that can be harvested sustainably, such as mushrooms, herbs, and
leaves and flowers for teas.
Masarjian hopes that in time, this may result in some sustainable
micro-enterprises for the villagers. The project is already employing
villagers from Margahovit in the reforestation effort.
"When people begin to understand that they can generate income by
protecting, preserving, and managing the forests sustainably, they are
going to be much less likely to allow for the forest to be exploited
unsustainably," Masarjian said.
2007 Conservation International
Photo Captions:
© CI, Kelly Keehan
Forests are the most important biome for biodiversity conservation in the
Caucasus Hotspot, covering nearly one-fifth of the region.
© Jeff Masarjian
Residents of the Armenian village of Margahovit assist in replanting efforts.
© Hawk Khatcherian
ATP selected and prepared a 20-hectare site near Margahovit for planting a
demonstration forest with native species.
For more information:
* Contact Jeff Masarjian, Executive Director, ATP
* Learn more about ATP’s work with community tree planting
* Read ATP’s recent newsletter, Trees for Life (PDF, 1 MB)
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