STEPANAVAN PROSECUTOR OFFICE INVESTIGATES INTO ILLEGAL MASS FELLING OF PINES IN THE REGION

YEREVAN, AUGUST 15. ARMINFO. The prosecutor office of Stepanavan
is investigating into the reported cases of illegal mass felling of
pines in the nearby Gulagarak reserve.

The chief of Armenia’s forest inspection Hrachik Chibukhchyan says
that the cases have been detected exclusively by the local forest
inspection and the prosecutor office already knows 80% of the names of
the illegal wood cutters. Chibukhchyan notes that in the Lori region
the index has dropped as against last year.

To remind, Aug 5 the Lore NGO ecologists asked the Stepanavan police
to find and punish illegal pine cutters near Stepanavan. They said
that big pines were being cut very actively there. Meanwhile relict
forests are irreparable. The law on compensation for damaging flora
and fauna fines $45 for a rare tree with up to 30 cm diameter and +
$3 for each cm of a tree with over 30 cm diameter.