NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS CALL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES OF ARMENIA TO INCLUDE ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN ELECTION PROGRAMS
2008-01-16 19:02:00
ArmInfo. 40 non-governmental organizations (NGO) of Armenia sent
a letter-appeal to the republic’s all 9 presidential candidates
calling to reconsider the extensive maintenance of the country’s
natural resources as well as to include points of the resources’
rational use in their election programs.
In the appeal signed by 40 organizations they express concern in
the exploitation rates of natural resource, as well as in the hasty
decision of field development of the copper-molybdenum deposit in
Teghut. The laws are mentioned in the letter, which will be violated
during the development of the deposit in Teghut. These are the Forest
and Water Codes, the laws "On Fauna" and "On Flora", as well as a
number of international conventions.
Yerevan Press Club, "Internews" NGO and a number of other ecological,
jurisprudential organizations and clubs of journalists from Yerevan,
Gyumri and Vanadzor are among the signatories of the letter.
To recall, development of the copper-molybdenum deposit in Teghut, Lori
region, Armenia started without the conclusion of Armles (Armforest)
CJSC on possible damage to Lalvar’s forestry. The forest in Teghut is
under Armles’s control. At the same time, according to the assessment
of specialists of Armles, 50 000c/m of the forest will be cut down for
the development of the deposit on 357ha lot of Teghut. At the same
time, ecologists assert that in case of development of the copper-
molybdenum deposit in Teghut all the lands adjacent to it will turn
into a "dead zone" and ACP company has no ecological conclusion with
the proposals of all the interested departments.
Up to now the project doesn’t include any conclusion on possible damage
to archeological monuments, dating to ancient era. At the same time,
in the government they only speak about economic gain of the project,
and Director of ACP Gagik Arzumanyan said in his talk with journalists
that the ore concentrate will not be fused at Alaverdi’s melting plant,
as it was supposed to be, but will exceptionally be exported. The
company made this decision taking into consideration unprofitability
and the possible closure of Alaverdi’s copper- molybdenum plant in
connection with the fact that the term of fulfillment of environmental
obligations by ACP company expires in 2009. The National Assembly
didn’t extend this term.