CENN – DECEMBER 21, 2004 DAILY DIGEST
Table of Contents:
1. International NGO Letter Protesting Against the Proposed Weakening of
the World Bank’s Social and Environmental Safeguard Policies
2. Additional Funds for Protection of Oil Pipeline Baku-Tbilisi -Ceyhan
3. Armenia Sells Zangezur Combine for $132 mln
4. By the End of 2004 Sanir Company to Announce Tender for Subcontractor
Work on Armenian Section of Iran-Armenia Gas Pipeline
5. UNDP Anti-corruption Project Backs Development of Law on Lobbing
6. War and Cold Have Depleted Armenia’s Only Natural Resource: Trees
7. Armenian Official Calls for Iran’s Fuel
1. INTERNATIONAL NGO LETTER PROTESTING AGAINST THE PROPOSED WEAKENING OF
THE WORLD BANK’S SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFEGUARD POLICIES
Dear friends,
Thank you for endorsing the international NGO letter protesting against
the proposed weakening of the World Bank’s social and environmental
safeguard policies. So far, this letter has been signed by 131 NGOs from
44 countries. Almost two thirds of the signatures are from groups in the
South.
We will only send the letter to the World Bank in the first days of
January. There is therefore still time for further endorsements. We will
resend you the letter with all endorsements once it has been sent.
The World Bank proposal includes many cases of weakened policies. Upon
suggestion from NGO colleagues, we have decided to mention two more
examples in the letter, as follows:
*On involuntary displacement: “OP 4.12 stipulates that preference be
given to land-based resettlement for all persons whose livelihoods are
land-based. The policy also requires that the needs of vulnerable groups
must be given particular attention. The new country systems proposal
qualifies the right to land-based resettlement for people who do not
hold land titles, and does not require that particular attention be
given to the needs of vulnerable groups.”
*On indigenous peoples: “OD 4.20 requires the preparation of an
Indigenous Peoples Development Plan in projects that affect indigenous
peoples. OD 4.20 requires, as part of such Plans, the establishment of a
baseline regarding the situation of indigenous peoples, an assessment of
the legal status of indigenous peoples, and the creation of mechanisms
for indigenous participation in project design, implementation and
monitoring. OD 4.20 requires the Bank to advise borrowing governments in
recognizing traditional land tenure systems of indigenous peoples prior
to project implementation, and stipulates that the Bank not appraise
projects where adverse impacts are unavoidable and adequate mitigation
plans have not been developed. None of these provisions are included in
the country systems proposal.”
We assume that these additions are fine with you. If not, please let us
know.
Thank you again for your support.
Peter Bosshard
International Rivers Network
2. ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR PROTECTION OF OIL PIPELINE BAKU-TBILISI-CEYHAN
Source: Sarke, December 20, 2004
The draft of the budget-2005 envisages disbursing of 30.9 million lari
to the special state protection service, what exceeds the financing
volume of the current year by 56%. The Finance Ministry explains the
volume has been increased due to the funds, directed to protection of
the oil pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, which launches in 2005.
3. ARMENIA SELLS ZANGEZUR COMBINE FOR $132 MLN
Source: Interfax, Russia, December 17 2004
Armenia has sold the Zangezur Copper- Molybdenum Combine to four
companies for $132 million.
The sales contract was signed December 14 in Yerevan, Trade and Economic
Development Minister Karen Chshmaritian said at a news conference.
He said 60% of ZMMK shares went to Germany’s Cronimet Mining, 15% to
Yerevan’s Pure Iron, 12.5% to Armenian Molybdenum Production (AMP) and
12.5% to Zangezur Mining.
The new ZMMK shareholders will create a unified management company, the
minister said.
The first $45 million will be paid by January 1, and the remainder by
the end of 2005. The deal will be financed by a consortium of Germany
banks that includes Deutsche Bank, Chshmaritian said.
According to a preliminary agreement, $250 million to $350 million will
be invested in ZMMK by 2012. The final figure will become clear after a
feasibility study is prepared in 2005 for the company’s modernization.
The investment is expected to boost ore production by 50% to 100%. The
project is expected to pay for itself in 6-7 years.
Armenia will stop exporting molybdenum concentrate as of January 1, as
it will all be processed inside the country, the minister said. Given
the current high world prices for molybdenum, even high shipping costs
are not expected to cause problems. The company exports to Europe
through Iran and Georgia.
Zangezur decreased production by 2.1% year-on-year to $24.8 billion dram
in the first half of 2004.
ZMMK mined 8.1 million tonnes of ore in 2003, and produced 6,300 tonnes
of molybdenum and 11,000 tonnes of copper in copper concentrate. The
Kadzharan copper and molybdenum mine, which ZMMK works, has the largest
reserves of any in the former Soviet Union.
4. BY THE END OF 2004 SANIR COMPANY TO ANNOUNCE TENDER FOR SUBCONTRACTOR
WORK ON ARMENIAN SECTION OF IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE
Source: Arminfo, December 17, 2004
By the end of this year the Sanir company from Iran will give start to a
tender to enroll subcontractors or laying the Armenian section of the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, says the director general of ArmRosGazprom
company Karen Karapetyan.
He says that his company will certainly take part in the tender and has
quite good chances to win it. “Even if we lose the winners will be
forced to cooperate with us considering that we have domestic gas market
monopoly,” says Karapetyan. He notes that after the Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline is built and the Abovyan underground gas depositary is restored
Armenia will have almost no energy security problems.
Sanir is the general contractor of the project. Iran will lend Armenia
$30 mln for laying the Armenian section of the pipeline – from Megri to
Kajaran. The loan will be given for 7.5 years at 5% a year. The project
will be finished in two years to be launched Jan 1 2007.
5. UNDP ANTI-CORRUPTION PROJECT BACKS DEVELOPMENT OF LAW ON LOBBYING
Source: ArmenPress, December 17, 2004
Today, at the Congress Hotel in Yerevan, the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP), in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and the
Ministry of Trade and Economic Development of Armenia, held a discussion
of the draft Concept of the Law on Lobbying of the Republic of Armenia.
Representatives of the Government, Parliament, local and international
organizations, trade unions and business associations, as well as
experts participated in the discussion, UNDP Country Office in Armenia
told Armenpress.
The aim of the discussion was to review the approaches and suggestions
on the draft concept of interested NGOs including those representing
interests of the private sector. At the event, the international
experience of regulating lobbying, ways, restrictions, financing and
reporting of lobbying, rights and responsibilities of lobbyists,
licensing and accreditation issues will be discussed. A special
importance will be attached to the suggestions on NGO lobbying.
Developing the regulatory framework for lobbying is the request of the
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Anti-Corruption Strategy
adopted by the Government of Armenia. At the same time, it is a key step
towards providing equal and transparent opportunities for civic
participation in decision-making and is called to foster participatory
processes in Armenia.
Vahan Asatryan, Coordinator, UNDP/Government Project on “Support to
Information Society and Democratic Governance”, noted in his speech:
“Within the United Nations System, UNDP plays an important role of
providing assistance for equal political, economic and social
opportunities. In this context UINDP supports the Government of Armenia
in developing legislation and implementing policies promoting efficient
participation of citizens in decision-making processes. Our mission in
Armenia is to help reducing political inequalities in the country
through promoting effective and broad civil society participation in
decision-making. We help the Government to establish responsive
participatory policy frameworks and to foster consolidation of
information society. We support establishing a civil society
anti-corruption network in the country and strengthen the capacity of
civil society to participate in anti-corruption initiatives
effectively.”
The UNDP support to the Government of Armenia and the Parliament in
developing a viable law on lobbying will continue in 2005.
6. WAR AND COLD HAVE DEPLETED ARMENIA’S ONLY NATURAL RESOURCE: TREES
Source: Agence France Presse, December 17, 2004
Since Armenia became locked in war over Nagorno-Karabakh, it has been
under an energy blockade from the oil-rich post Soviet republic as well
as from Turkey. As a result, when the war was in full swing much of the
tiny land-locked nation’s forests were cut to be used as fuel.
Now Armenia has a new gas pipeline linking it to Russia, but today the
problem for many Armenians is the fuel’s price, so the cutting
continues.
“During the Soviet Union we had as much gas as we wanted,” Vladimir
Gregorian, a 75-year-old pensioner, said as he pulled a cart stuffed
with brush and branches down a slope leading out of the woods around the
Genocide Memorial.
He said his 20-dollar monthly pension was not enough for him to buy a
new gas line for his house or even pay for the gas itself, so he heats
water for baths with wood collected in the area.
But environmentalists warn that if wood cutting in Armenia continues in
an unsustainable way, much of the country’s harsh mountainous terrain
could turn to desert, a process they say would be irreversible if left
to itself.
“The winters of 1991 and 1992 were very severe, Armenians had no
alternative but to cut trees and burn park benches,” said Susan Yacubian
Klein, the director of the Armenian Tree Project, a US donor-sponsored
organization dedicated to reforestation and sustainability.
But today loggers continue to cut forests illegally, Yacubian Klein
said, delivering their contraband goods to cities in covered trucks, “If
forest cutting continues at the same rate in 20 years Armenia will face
desertification.”
Today deforestation is already causing erosion and landslides and is
throwing dust that used to be held down by roots into the air of
Armenia’s cities, and according to the Armenian Tree Project the
situation could get worse.
In some areas, roads have collapsed as a result of the powerful erosion
forces that deforestation has unchained in rivers.
But there are ways to revitalize the forests. The ATP has launched a
number of projects including one around the Genocide Memorial where
workers use a technique called coppicing to rejuvenate tree stumps.
By cutting away excess shoots that grow out of a stump people can help
one healthy branch utilize the tree’s root system to grow into a tree.
However the work “is just a drop in the bucket,” Yacubian Klein
admitted.
In 1900 forests covered 25% of Armenia, after 70 years of Soviet rule
that figure dropped to 12%, but the decline of wooded areas in the last
decade has been the most dramatic, bringing forest cover to just 8%.
Armenia’s energy crisis has had at least one benefit.
Its isolation and lack of hydrocarbon reserves has lead to some
innovative ideas about alternative energy sources, in contrast to its
two Caucasus neighbors, Georgia and Azerbaijan, whose policies have been
dominated by a geopolitical tug-of-war for pipelines, electricity cables
and global alliances.
A few years ago a small firm called SolarEn started up a project to
explore solar energy in Armenia and has since branched out to wind power
and hydrogen powered fuel cells.
Spurring companies like this on is legislation requiring the state
electricity monopoly to buy electricity generated by alternative means
at a higher price to encourage private investment in the sector.
SolarEn is not in the black yet but its sales of affordable solar
powered water heating systems and alternative energy consultancy
services have given it an annual turnover of nearly 100,000 dollars.
Its sister firm Zod Wind is involved in a 25 million dollar project to
build a set of wind turbines in the east of Armenia next year and an
Iranian firm has already begun construction of two wind turbines in the
south as a 3.5 million dollar gift to the country.
“We don’t have oil, we don’t have gas, all we have is the sun and the
wind,” said SolarEn Executive Director Viktor Afyan, “we need to use
it.”
7. ARMENIAN OFFICIAL CALLS FOR IRAN’S FUEL
Source: MehrNews.com, Iran, December 19, 2004
Khachaturian, the governor-general of Armenian Siunik Province on
December 19, 2004 called for Iran to provide fuel and fertilizers
required by the farmers of his province. According to ISNA, Khachaturian
visiting governor-general of the Iranian East Azarbaijan Province,
Mohammad Ali Sobhanollahi said that Iran-Armenia ties and East
Azarbaijan-Siunik relations should be in the way to represent a model
for other provinces.
“We attempt to carry out the previously made contracts between the two
provinces coupled with fulfilling duties in implementation of contracts
signed by presidents of Iran and Armenia”, he stated.
The Armenian governor-general also said that dam construction and the
third electricity transmission line are among projects that are
presently being implemented between the two countries.
In his part, Sobhanollahi said, “Our cooperation in agricultural,
medical, and sanitary fields has been started, as presently Siunik
exports cement and meat to East Azarbaijan. In return, we can help
Siunik modernize its agricultural sector.”
In conclusion, the Iranian governor-general called for the
re-establishment of Tabriz-Yerevan airline as well as removing the
impediments in expansion of ties between the two provinces.
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CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)
Tel: ++995 32 92 39 46
Fax: ++995 32 92 39 47
E-mail: [email protected]
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