ArmInfo. The y-o-y "shadow" turnover on illegal logging of forests in Armenia is estimated at $ 30-40 million. Armenian Minister of Nature Protection Erik Grigoryan told reporters on July 18 after a government meeting.
Thus, according to Grigoryan, the annual volumes of illegal logging, according to various expert estimates, range from 500 thousand to 1 million cubic meters. "If 1 million is multiplied by $ 40, it turns out that the shadow turnover in the field reaches $ 40 million per year," he explained. At the same time, as the minister pointed out, the tree-cutting capacity allowed by the law for 2019 is set at 17 thousand cubic meters. The process, nevertheless, according to the Minister, has moved from a dead center. The Parliament approved a legislative initiative, which, in the event of a repeated violation of illegal logging within a year, established no longer an administrative punishment, but a criminal one. An aggravating circumstance will also be considered an offense committed as a part of the group, the transportation of wood even for the first time is also fixed by the relevant article of the RA Criminal Code.
In addition, a single-use ticket issued for the legal right to cut wood can no longer be used many times. As a result, as Grigoryan noted, today there are no problems in Syunik forestry. "Forestry in Lori and Tavush is still problematic, in particular, Ijevan forestry, whose management was replaced 10 days ago, which caused dissatisfaction of sawmill workers," he said.
To recall, in the evening of July 17 in Ijevan in the Tavush region of Armenia, a group of sawmill workers blocked an interstate route leading to Georgia. The demonstrators demanded that they, as before, be allowed to cut wood.