Armenian Assembly of
America:
Armenia
Tree Project
ATP celebrates the 1700th
anniversary of Christianity in Armenia with a massive tree planting
Third graders, Datevik Hagopian & Mairamak Garabedian, hearing impaired
students at the Zeitun Boarding School,
learn to read out loud to each other under the shade of this 5-year-old ATP
tree.
A
tree nursery to propagate native tree stock, tree plantings to restore public
sites, and a working partnership with fruit growing
farmers––that is the business of the Armenian Assembly’s Armenia
Tree Project (ATP.) The Armenia Tree Project was founded in 1993 to
advance Armenia’s economic and social development by mobilizing resources
outside the country to fund reforestation efforts throughout Armenia.
These forests provide food, fuel, wood, environmental benefits and opportunities
for economic growth.
Community
tree planting (CTP) is at the core of the Armenia Tree Project. Residents who
are eager to plant trees and can pledge ongoing care for them call on ATP
to help them rebuild public sites. Most ATP trees are flourishing in gardens
surrounding schools, orphanages, hospitals, senior centers and city parks. These
trees offer shade, clean air, and often, fruit. Since its inception, ATP has
planted about 218,000 trees (as of June 1999) at 350 sites throughout Armenia.
The
operation of a Tree Nursery is another ATP program. Just 30 miles northeast of
Yerevan, in Karin Village, close to the town of Ashtarak, hard-working villagers
have turned a plot of rocky, barren land into a flourishing oasis––the site
of ATP’s nursery. In 1998, the nursery doubled in size and generated a harvest
of 24,000 commercial grade fruit and decorative trees and shrubs––all native
to Armenia and of the highest quality and perfectly suited to local conditions.
ATP’s
most recent program is Village Economic Development (VED.) Within the framework
of this program, ATP developed an income-generating project to assist farmers
in dried fruit production. ATP financed construction of one commercial-scale
and 50 portable solar fruit dryers in three villages and partnered with 151
farmers to preserve, package and market dried apricots, apples, pears and plums.
In 1998, almost 4.5 tons of dried fruit have been produced and about 2 tons
have been packaged and marketed locally. The fruit, sold in local markets, provides
an income for farmers and their families.
For more information,
e-mail the ATP at info@armeniatree.org
or check the ATP web site at: http://www.armeniatree.org/
The Armenia Tree Project Works
to Protect Forests, Soil, Water and People
By Jason Kauffeld
Since 1993, over one hundred thousand hectares of Armenia's forests have been
lost due to unregulated cutting. Only 8%, or roughly two hundred and forty thousand
hectares, of Armenia's land is now covered with forest. If the current rate
of deforestation continues Armenia will have no forests left by the year 2030.
Without forest cover, much of Armenia's lands will turn to desert and its fertile
topsoil, accumulated over thousands of years, will be quickly lost through wind
erosion. Desertification will destroy the ability of most of Armenia's villagers
to grow enough food to support themselves and their families. This pending environmental
and social disaster requires an urgent response. Armenia Tree Project (ATP)
is one of the first organizations founded to combat the loss of Armenia's forests
while also working with its poorest citizens to improve their economic conditions.
ATP was founded in 1994, by a Diasporan Armenian who came many times to Armenia
in the midst of its unprecedented energy crisis of the early '90's. During these
trips, she observed extensive tree cutting in urban and rural areas as people
devoid of access to electricity or gas looked for any means of keeping warm
through the severe winters. Her vision, to start replanting at once for Armenia's
future, gave birth to the Armenia Tree Project.
Since its founding, ATP has been furthering Armenia's environmental protection
and social development through community based reforestation initiatives. The
ATP pledge is to use trees to improve the standard of living of Armenians, aiding
those with fewest resources first. During its first nine years of work, ATP
has planted and rejuvenated over 415,000 trees at 450 sites throughout Armenia
and employed hundreds of villagers and refugees of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict.
As ATP prepares to enter its second decade of service in the Republic of Armenia,
its activities have coalesced into three broad programmatic themes: Urban Reforestation,
Rural and Mountainous Reforestation, and Environmental Sustainability.
Urban Reforestation. Urban Reforestation describes ATP's work of Community
Tree Planting, Nursery Establishment, and Coppicing. Annually, ATP plants 40,000
high quality fruit, nut, and shade trees in Yerevan and other communities through
its Community Tree Planting program. Two state-of-the-art tree nurseries needed
to provide these trees have been established in the refugee villages of Karin
and Khachpar. These nurseries are an important source of employment in the villages.
ATP has also introduced the practice of coppicing to many villagers. Coppicing
is the forestry practice of reviving the stump of a cut tree, producing a rapidly
growing new tree nourished and watered by the mature root system of the stump.
ATP is using this technique to restore hundreds of hectares around important
monuments such as the Genocide Memorial located in Yerevan.
Rural and Mountainous Reforestation. Rural and Mountainous Reforestation describes
ATP's activities of village poverty reduction and reforestation. Near the border
of Tavush Marz, in the Getik River valley, ATP has launched its poverty reduction
through reforestation program. In the refugee village of Aygut, ATP is building
partnerships with the villagers and with other international and local organizations
to combat the linked problems of poverty and natural resource degradation. Contributors
so far include the World Food Program, Heifer International, ORRAN, Boghosian
Center, USDA/MAP, and many others. Accomplishments so far include an Earth Day
2003 one-hectare fruit orchard planting on a plot that belongs to the village
school. The production from this orchard will be used to feed the students and
to obtain needed school supplies. Also, thirty families and youth group members
are enrolled in a visionary project whereby tree seedlings are produced in backyards
and then, upon being planted by the villagers in areas needing reforestation,
are purchased by ATP. In this way, villagers receive an income and useful training,
and ATP is able to obtain the seedlings needed for reforestation projects, at
prices more favorable than purchasing them from larger nurseries. Next year,
20,000 seedlings will be planted. The Armenia Tree Project plans to expand this
nursery business to other families in the village and then to other villages
in the region, assisting in the economic development of the area while reforesting
the Getik River valley.
Environmental Sustainability. Environmental Sustainability describes ATP's
outreach, public awareness, and law reform campaigns. ATP is developing a methodology
of reaching out to organizations and to villagers to develop a sustainable method
of 'doing business' regarding protecting Armenia's natural resources and its
villagers because it recognizes the challenge is too immense for any one organization
to tackle alone. In response, ATP has also helped to found the Protect Our Forests
Coalition. The Coalition was formally launched in June of 2003 to bring together
hundreds of organizations and individuals interested in increasing awareness
of the environmental problems facing Armenia today. Unique in the Caucuses,
this Coalition hopes to use the large number of voices it can mobilize to effect
change on the government level.
The Armenia Tree Project has one office in Yerevan and one office in America.
For more information, please feel free to contact the Yerevan office, phone
(3741) 56-99-10 or email trees@arminco.com
To contact the America office, please call (617) 926-8733 or email info@armeniatree.org