ILLEGAL BUSINESS HARMS NATURE

A1+
[03:56 pm] 04 September, 2006

Armenia which has been importing wood for the last 70 years has
started to export it.

According to the data from the Customs service, Armenian wood is
exported to Iran, Turkey, Spain, France, Germany and even Tanzania. By
the way, in Soviet times Armenia never engaged in wood export.

The total area of forests in Armenia was last calculated in 1991.There
is no exact information about the forests at present. If 25% of the
territory of Armenia used to be covered with forests, now the index
is about 6-8%. In the CIS countries the average amount of forest
per person is 2.7 hectares, whereas in Armenia it makes 0.1 hectares
per person.

According to the order given to the Armenian forestries, the annual
volume of chopping does not exceed 71-75 thousand cubic meters. In
reality the volumes are much higher. According to the investigations
of independent experts, the annual volume of chopping in Armenia is
1 million 250 thousand cubic meters. And the total number of forest
resources in Armenia is about 42 million cubic meters.

By the way, this data was generated years ago. The main species of
trees chopped are oak and walnut.

Annual circulation of building wood is about 8 million USD, and that
of firewood is 10 million USD. "This sum does not even go to the state
budget as the majority comes from illegal chopping. At present only
chopping for sanitary aims are legally allowed. No businessman will
export that wood as it costs nothing. Only the most valuable wood
is exported, like oak, the stores of which are very little in the
whole world.

Factually, we export is almost for nothing, at the expense of the
environment," says Nazeli Vardanyan, the head of the NGO "Armenian
Forests".

It is noteworthy that the decision about amnesty in connection with the
15th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia says
that there are several crimes for which amnesty is not granted. Wood
chopping is one of them.