ArmInfo.Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan at a government meeting on October 19 urged the members of the Cabinet to think over the provision of free dams to the residents of the forested communities in order to reduce the amount of illegal deforestation.
According to the Prime Minister, within the framework of the previously announced instruction, a concept will soon be presented to the government court aimed at improving the efficiency of forest management and conservation in Armenia. At the same time, as the head of government noted, the study of the sphere revealed a number of problems. It turned out that measures of criminal and administrative responsibility for illegal tree cutting do not contribute to the prevention of these violations. It was also found out that during the last few years the volumes of timber supplies have decreased threefold.
Taking into account the urgency of these tasks, the Prime Minister instructed the heads of the ministries of nature protection Artsvik Minasyan, agriculture Ignaty Arakelyan, territorial management and development David Lokyan should provide residents of valleys with fallen trees, giving priority to socially disadvantaged groups of the population. Karen Karapetyan also instructed in 10 days to submit to the government apparatus analysis on the required volume of wood supplies.
At the same time, he instructed the heads of the responsible departments to submit in 2 months a draft of legal acts aimed at strengthening the responsibility for illegal deforestation. "We must carry out reforms and, within the framework of the logic, legalize deforestation, and send financial receipts to" ArmLes "in order to provide them with everything necessary to carry out the strictest monitoring of the process," the Prime Minister explained. It should be noted that the fight against illegal deforestation of Armenia has become an urgent task of the government.
The last major state of emergency was recorded recently - on October 13 a group of people entered the territory of the Shamakhi section of the Dilijan National Park. As press secretary of the Ministry of Nature Protection Marina Karapetyan informed, they set fire to one of the security points of Panther Security Ltd. and applied violence against his employee. Investigators continue to search for people who attacked security officers in the Dilijan National Park and set fire to their lodge. According to some reports, the attack on the staff of the Panther Securitry security service and arson was organized by residents of nearby villages, dissatisfied with the fact that they can not cut trees in the Dilijan forest because of increased control. Moreover, about a month ago, residents of the village of Haghartsin expressed their discontent with the situation, blocking a section of the highway that passes through their village, demanding that trees be cut in the forest to meet their needs.