IN A COUPLE OF YEARS ARMENIA MAY TURN INTO DESERT

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Nov 29 2006

As a result of illegal deforestation, Armenia will shortly turn into
a desert. This is shown in a documentary presented in the Tekeyan
Center in Yerevan, Wednesday.

The authors of the film say that according to the research held by
the World Bank and the "Armenia Tree Project" benevolent fund, 80% of
the country’s territory is suffering deforestation at the moment. In
his conversation with an ArmInfo correspondent, Mher Sadoyan, the
ATP regional deputy director, noted that during the past 12 years,
about 1.5 mln trees have been planted in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh
by the Fund’s efforts.

The presentation of collected articles entitled "To Spread the Idea is
to Plant a Tree" (1.5 thousand copies), as well as a seminar of ecology
specialists and teachers were held in the Center. In the course of the
activities, the participants discussed a number of issues related both
to their work and ecology in general. About 55 teachers of ecology
from Yerevan, as well as from Lori, Kotayk and Syunik regions, took
part in the seminar. As regards the collection, it is meant for 4-9th
formers and comprises theory and practice on protection of nature and
environment. To note, the Fund was established in 1994. Its activity
is aimed to restore and protect the bio-system of Armenia.