Minister: About 20 million drams allocated from the budget of Armenia  for forest restoration work

ArmInfo.About 20 million drams were allocated from the Armenian budget for forest restoration works. Minister of Nature Protection of Armenia Eric Grigoryan stated this  during a seminar on the topic "Forests and Education", timed to the  International Day of Forests.

"20 million drams were allocated from the budget for reforestation,  in parallel with this, there are several programs that involve  full-scale restoration of forest areas in the republic. At the end of  January, we made a proposal for a program in the amount of $ 6.3  million, which includes restoration work on 450 hectares in Yerevan,  "the minister said According to him, a number of reforestation  programs are also planned to be implemented in the north of Armenia.  "We have to take big steps in this direction, because our ambitions  and our goals for forest restoration are very high, and besides, we  have international commitments to increase forest areas in the  country. The work on forest restoration will henceforth have a  different level of quality, "Grigoryan assured of his word, stressing  that the target of the government is 50% annual forest restoration.

Touching on the issue of installing cameras in forests as a means of  controlling and security of these territories, the minister noted  that this is not a sufficient condition for solving problems, adding  that the ministry is currently developing a new model of management  and control systems in forest areas.

Regarding the issue of raising wages for forestry workers, the  minister noted that certain measures are being taken in this  direction. <By the way, at the end of last year, the employees of  protected areas received funds for the first time to purchase working  clothes, which they had never received before, "Grigoryan concluded.

Representative of the German Embassy Klaus Wendelberger, who was  present at the seminar, cited statistical data, according to which  only 11% of the territory of Armenia (ie, 3341 km) Is covered with  forest. "Germany has been helping the Armenian government in the  protection of the country's natural resources for many years," said  Wendelberger, expressing the hope that by 2025 Armenia will be able  to increase its forest area to 20%.

According to the German diplomat, the problem of reforestation is not  a task of the Ministry of Conservation and Nature alone - the problem  will not be solved without the introduction of "smart" financial  mechanisms with the participation of the Ministry of Finance. The  seminar also highlighted a number of problems in the forest  management system, in particular, inconsistency of forest legislation  with international standards, legal issues, inefficient and  non-transparent management, lack of reliable information on forest  resources and their modification, lack of personnel in this area, and  such a painful topic, like corruption.

It was noted that in the international report on the restoration of  forest landscapes in Armenia, there were numbers that did not  correspond to reality.  According to the Bonn Challenge report, the  restoration of forest landscapes Armenia in 2010 increased the forest  area by 262 thousand hectares, and in 2015 by 332 thousand hectares.  However, these figures do not correspond to reality.