PROCEEDINGS OF JOINT PROGRAM OF WORLD BANK AND RA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ENVISAGED TO FINISH IN JANUARY 2009

Noyan Tapan
Aug 03 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The proceedings of the joint
"Management of Natural Reserves and Reduction of Poverty" program of
the World Bank and the RA Ministry of Environmental Protection are
envisaged to finish in January 2009. As Armen Badalian, the Director
of the Office of the Program Implementation, mentioned during the
workshop held in Ijevan on August 3, the aim of this program, which
started in 2002, is to contribute to the improvement of the living
standards of the population through the application of the productive
mechanisms of the management of natural reserves.

According to him, the management of forests is one of the most
important components of this program. Particularty, forest-restoration
complex measures are being implemented in the territories of the
"Ijevan" and "Sevkar" forest economies of "Hayantar", such as
resoration of degraded forests, increase in productivity of forest
lands, as well as many others.

The proceedings of the above-mentioned component, according to
coordinator Ayser Ghazarian, started in November 2006 and only 30%
of the envisaged work has been done so far. He attached importance
to the choice of regions: Tavush and Gegharkunik, where the most
expansive deforestations were implemented in the 1990s.

According to A. Ghazarian, a space of 37641 linear meters of general
length is envisaged to be fenced, about 20 thousand out of which in
the forests of Ijevan and the rest in those of Sevkar. " In case of
implementing envisaged forest restoration and care measures in the
future years, an increase of afforested spaces by 282.2 hectares is
envisaged," he mentioned and added that a grove is envisaged to be
founded in the neighbourhood of the city of Ijevan by planting about
32 kinds of trees and plants within the framework of the program.

It was also mentioned that 16 million U.S. dollars, in general,
have been allocated for the implementation of this program by the
RA government, the Swiss SIDA company, the International Development
Association, and the Global Ecological Fund.