SITUATION WITH WASTE MANAGEMENT AND HALTING FOREST LOSS IN ARMENIA WORSE THAN IN THE WORLD IN AVERAGE: EXPERT

ArmInfo
2010-03-10 16:38:00

ArmInfo. Armenia cannot understand that today’s ecology is tomorrow’s
economy, said Karine Danielyan, Chairperson of the Association For
Sustainable Development, in a press conference at De Facto Club
on Wednesday.

Drawing parallels between Armenia and other countries, K. Danielyan
said that ecologists are most of all concerned about waste management
and forest loss where the situation is worse than in the world
in average. "One may get an impression that the government signs
international conventions but acts in its favor. As a result, desertion
scales may grow. The ecological situation in Yerevan is critical. To
correct the situation we have agreed with the Yerevan Municipality
to set up an Ecology Council," K. Danielyan said. As regards positive
changes, she highlighted that the government reckons with the public
opinion when settling many problems. "We can see that on the examples
of the construction of a gold recovery plant in Sotk and alienation
of the area of Jrvezh forestry," she said.

Nevertheless, she said that the government is not always ready
to meet the demands by public organizations. For instance, she
said, the decision of the Committee on Fulfillment the Aarhus
Convention to discuss the problem of Dalma gardens with NGOs was not
implemented. A similar decision was made also regarding development
of the Tekhut copper and molybdenum deposit, but it is still unknown
if the Government will listen to the Committee on Fulfillment of the
Aarhus Convention. "Our efforts bring no results, since Armenia has
not understood that today’s ecology is tomorrow’s economy. We must
fight for this ideology to be laid in the basis of activity of the
World Bank, the IMF and the WTO. At present they operate on quite
different ideology of unprofitable economy and neo-economy," she
said. Karine Danielyan highlighted that green economy is developed
in the world at present. "It is very important for us to have exact
criteria, indicators and indexes of green economy," she said. Danielyan
recalled that she raised the given issues at the Global Environment
Forum in Bali on Feb 20-26 and at the 11th Special Session of the
UNEP Governing Council. The problems of biodiversity and forest loss
and climate changes were discussed at the forums.