15:21,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Environment Romanos Petrosyan has convened a consultation with officials ahead of launching the new procedures aimed at regulating the signing of contracts on the sustainable use and restoration of Lake Sevan’s fauna.

Petrosyan issued a statement saying he considers saving Lake Sevan to be a task of pan-Armenian significance.

“There are deep and serious challenges in the Sevan National Park. I inherently realize the volume of its political responsibility, all its legal and social risks, but I am not stepping back not for a second – Sevan’s salvation is an issue of pan-Armenian significance,” he said, vowing to stop and bring to account groups and individuals or corrupt officials who have been harming and contaminating the lake for many years.

Petrosyan said a new department of the Sevan National Park will be charged with bringing law and order and will become a core tool of restoring the lake’s ecosystem. He said they are paying special attention to the ideological component of the future staff of the division.

“On August 20th, the test program of common whitefish industrial fishing will launch, which in the coming years must become the main system of restoring Lake Sevan’s fish reserves,” he said, adding that industrial fishing will be under his direct attention. “No one will have the right to bypass or ignore the law, regardless of their position or status”.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan