ILLEGAL BUSINESS HARMS NATURE
Support A1+!Armenia which has been importing wood for the last 70 years has started to export it recently.
According to the data from the Customs service, Armenian wood is exported to Iran, Turkey, Spain, France, Germany and even Tanzania. By the way, in Soviet times Armenia never engaged in wood export.
The total area of forests in Armenia was last calculated in 1991.There is no exact information about the forests at present. If 25% of the territory of Armenia used to be covered with forests, now the index is about 6-8%. In the CIS countries the average amount of forest per person is 2.7 hectares, whereas in Armenia it makes 0.1 hectares per person.
According to the order given to the Armenian forestries, the annual volume of chopping does not exceed 71-75 thousand cubic meters. In reality the volumes are much higher. According to the investigations of independent experts, the annual volume of chopping in Armenia is 1 million 250 thousand cubic meters. And the total number of forest resources in Armenia is about 42 million cubic meters. By the way, this data was generated years ago. The main species of trees chopped are oak and walnut.
Annual circulation of building wood is about 8 million USD, and that of firewood is 10 million USD. “This sum does not even go to the state budget as the majority comes from illegal chopping. At present only chopping for sanitary aims are legally allowed. No businessman will export that wood as it costs nothing. Only the most valuable wood is exported, like oak, the stores of which are very little in the whole world. Factually, we export is almost for nothing, at the expense of the environment,” says Nazeli Vardanyan, the head of the NGO «Armenian Forests».
It is noteworthy that the decision about amnesty in connection with the 15th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia says that there are several crimes for which amnesty is not granted. Wood chopping is one of them.
