Russia allocated $ 1 million to assist Armenia in fighting forest  fires

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.