CNN TRAVELLER MAGAZINE (UK)
April 2005 (pp. 48-52)
FLIGHT TO THE FINISH
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MATTHEW KARANIAN AND ROBERT KURKJIAN
Matthew Karanian and Robert Kurkjian join local ornithologists to find out
how environmental change has affected Armenia’s rich bird population
It was difficult at times to avoid slipping or, perhaps worse, sinking in
the wet peat. We were walking along the bottom of a dead lake in
eastern-central Armenia, under a cloak of silence that had been draped
over us by Levan Janoyan, our expedition leader.
Janoyan still referred to our expedition location as Lake Gilli, even
though this important watershed had been drained by the Soviet government
back in the 1960s, supposedly to improve the region’s agriculture. As the
lake waters retreated, they had revealed an abundance of peat, as
expected, but the loss of the lake was a tragedy for the region’s ecology.
Now, as we slopped through the peat and muck of the former lake’s bottom,
and pushed aside the cattails that often impeded our movement, we kept
stopping and bringing our field glasses back up to our eyes so that we
wouldn’t miss a chance to view the region’s vanishing birdlife.
Janoyan and his crew did not look like what we thought birders should look
like. He and his four colleagues drove old Russian-manufactured jeeps,
instead of expensive SUV’s, and none of them wore the floppy hats and
fancy safari outfits that we thought all birders wore. They matched my
stereotype of hunters far more than that of ornithologists.
But for the past decade or so, they have been part of a small group of
scientists at the American University of Armenia who have been leading
field excursions throughout Armenia in their quest to map and to study the
country’s bird population. People who are not wildlife biologists are
sometimes invited along, and today we were among their guests.
A Eurasian Hoopoe flittered by and the non-birders were excited to finally
see something that they actually knew by name. The Hoopoe is slightly
larger than a Robin and orange-colored, with a crown on its head that
looks something like a helmet. It was a disappointment to learn that these
exotic-looking Hoopoes are considered to be so common in Armenia that they
barely warranted a notation in our field notebooks. What bird would these
birders most like to see. `Ah, a Black Stork,’ says Janoyan, naming a bird
that had once used the lake as a breeding ground but which hasn’t been
seen in the area for decades.
This research team, which is officially known as the Birds of Armenia
Project, was put together about a decade ago by the Armenian-American
philanthropist and conservationist Sarkis Acopian as part of his funding
for conservation efforts in Armenia. Janoyan has been involved in the
project since its inception, and the local project manager since 2002. So
far, with the financial backing of Mr. Acopian, they have produced a great
amount of research – including field guidebooks in both English and Armenian
versions and a technical handbook – on the country’s imperiled bird
population.
Ornithologists and other scientists have been drawn to Armenia partly
because it has a disproportionately large number of bird species within
its relatively modest geographic area. In a country that’s roughly the
size of Belgium there are 346 known species of birds. All of Europe, by
comparison, has just 450 recorded species.
These birds are so-called `indicators’ of environmental health. Just like
the proverbial canary in the coal mine, a region’s bird population serves
to indicate the state of health of the environment, says Dan Klem, Ph D,
an American professor of ornithology who studies the birds of Armenia and
who has co-authored books and articles about birds with the Armenian
group.
`Changes in food supply, climate, habitat loss, and threats from chemical
contamination and pollution, affect birds and people in similar ways,’
says Klem. Scientists use birds as tools to inform us about the state of
the environment, he says. In Armenia, Klem says, birds inform us that we
need to use more care to conserve natural habitats.
Our group had been drawn to the complex wetland ecosystem of the former
Lake Gilli this morning to chart the continued decline of the bird
population here. Birds began avoiding the region in 1960 when the draining
of the lake was begun. The avian population has declined for the past four
decades and today 23 traditionally-breeding species no longer breed in the
area, and four other species have completely vanished. If we could have
seen a Black Stork, Glossy Ibis, White-Winged Scoter, or a Little Crake,
we might have heard some shrieks of joy. Instead, the mood was sedate.
Later during the day, at a site several kilometers north of the dead lake,
we discovered a nesting Kestrel, which finally brought delight to the
birders. This raptor is similar in appearance to the Peregrine Falcon,
with a hooked beak and sharp talons. Unlike many birds of prey, Kestrels
are not particularly wary of people, and so it happened that we got a good
look at this one. We might have once been able to see as many as a hundred
Kestrels in this area on a good day. But today wasn’t a good day.
Keith Bildstein, Ph D, another American ornithologist who travels to
Armenia and collaborates with the Birds of Armenia Project, explained the
significance of the unseen Kestrels. As recently as a decade ago, he says,
hundreds of pairs of Kestrels were living amid the stately poplar trees
that lined the corridor between Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, and its
majestic Lake Sevan. Bildstein cites the Kestrel’s plight as an example of
more endemic environmental problems in Armenia.
During the past few years most of the trees that line the corridor to Lake
Sevan have been illegally cut for firewood, depriving the Kestrels of
nesting areas. `And at the rate that trees are now being cut, all of them
will be removed within three years,’ says Bildstein. If the trees
disappear, the Kestrel’s will go, too. They haven’t left yet. A recent
survey by members of the Birds of Armenia Project documented 87 pairs of
Kestrels in the wild.
Some of the people who join the Birds of Armenia group on their
expeditions are tourists who are interested in birds and conservation but
they are few. Travelers tend to visit Armenia for its historic sites, and
not to hike in the forests or watch for birds, however. The local people
in this impoverished country are more concerned about eking out a living
than with ecology, and so there isn’t much interest in these expeditions
from them. Raising awareness of conservation issues in Armenia has proven
to be a daunting task for the Birds of Armenia group.
Janoyan reminded me of the loss of the Kestrels. Lose the trees, lose the
lake, and you lose the habitat. Lose the habitat and you lose the birds. I
wondered if the same fate could befall the people who lived here. But he
was upbeat about the prospects for the future.
He told us about several large fish farms that were established about 100
kilometers west of the Gilli marshland, at right about the same time that
the Lake Gilli habitat was damaged. Today they are an alternative habitat
for many of the region’s birds, and birders and scientists make
expeditions to the new site to see many of the species that they would
have previously seen at the lake. The birds adapted to the changes in the
environment, and Armenia has remained a significant birding location. A
person could learn a lot from a bird.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Matthew Karanian and Robert Kurkjian are the authors of the Stone Garden
Guide to Armenia and Karabagh, the first stand-alone guide to this
often-forgotten part of the world.
As well as being a travel guide that details where to stay and cultural
highlights, their book focuses on the environmental issues currently
facing Armenia. Kurkjian is an environmental scientist with a Ph D from
the University of California. Karanian is an environmental attorney who
teaches environmental law at the American University of Armenia.
MORE INFORMATION
The Stone Garden Guide to Armenia and Karabagh is available from
price $24.95
FACTS AND FIGURES
Independence
Armenia was the smallest republic of the former Soviet Union and achieved
independence when the superpower crumbled in 1991. Except for a brief
period between 1918 and 1920, the country had not been independent for 600
years.
Geography
Armenia is landlocked and mountainous. Only 10 percent of the country lies
below 1,000 m. Four percent of the country is covered by Lake Sevan, one
of the world’s largest alpine lakes. Lake Gilli lies in the southeast of
the Sevan basin and the area around it was once a complex wetland system.
If restored, Lake Gilli would help boost the country’s biological
diversity.
End.