ArmInfo.Russia allocated $ 1 million to UNDP to assist Armenia in fighting forest fires.
The head of the "Mitigating the Impact of Climate Change in Armenia through Developing the Potential of Forest and Field Fire Management" project Vardan Melikyan informed that the project was launched in 2017, and will be completed in 2020. "Within the framework of the project, special equipment and tools designed to fight forest fires in difficult terrain were handed over to the Armenian firefighters. In addition, it is planned to develop the existing capabilities, carry out personnel retraining at various levels, as well as make legislative changes and changes to existing standards,"Melikyan stated at an event in the Khosrov Forest State Reserve on March 17. At the same time, he stressed that 360 Armenian firefighters have already received special uniforms and equipment for extinguishing fires in remote forest and mountain areas of Armenia. "There are axes and special backpacks for on-foot water transportation, and bending water tanks, which will be installed in hard-to-reach places so that firefighters, if necessary, can use water, as well as radio communications and much more. But, it should be noted that in order to fully fight forest fires, this kind of simple, but at the same time very efficient equipment should be provided to about 1000 firefighters, but at this stage, within the framework of this program, it was possible to provide only 360 people ", he said.
At the same time, Melikyan informed that firefighters also need about 20 pick-up cars, which can cover the whole territory of Armenia and, if necessary, respond mobile to the emerging threats of forest fires, quickly transferring personnel of fire departments to remote mountain and forest areas Republic. It should be noted that Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin, Regional DIrector of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS Mirjana Spoljaric Egger , Minister of Nature Protection of the RADmitry Grigoryan, Minister of Emergency Situations of the RA Feliks Tsolakyan participated in the event organized in the Khosrov Reserve.