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Armenia Tree Project
65 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472 USA
Tel: (617) 926-TREE (8733)
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.armeniatree.org
Press Release
December 5, 2006
Armenia Tree Project Pledge Contributes to UNEP Billion Tree Campaign
YEREVAN, Armenia and WATERTOWN, Massachusetts--Armenia Tree Project (ATP)
has joined the worldwide tree planting campaign launched by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
As part of the ~SPlant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign~T
[www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign], ATP pledged to plant at least 500,000
trees in 2007. This will be part of Armenia~Rs contribution to the UNEP goal
to plant at least one billion trees worldwide during 2007.
ATP was founded in 1994 in to further Armenia~Rs economic and social
development by assisting the Armenian people to use trees to improve their
environment and standard of living. Guided by the need to promote
self-sufficiency, aid those with the fewest resources, and conserve the
indigenous ecosystem, ATP mobilizes resources to fund reforestation and the
preservation of remaining ecosystems.
Through interrelated programs including urban and rural tree planting,
environmental education, and advocacy, ATP stands at the forefront of
addressing Armenia~Rs environmental challenges.
Over the past 12 years, ATP~Rs Community Tree Planting program has
facilitated the planting and restoration of more than 800,000 trees at over
600 sites in Armenia. Fifty thousand trees are grown each year to supply
this program at nurseries located in the refugee villages of Karin and
Khachpar.
At these two nurseries, ATP conducts research on tree propagation
techniques, produces 53 varieties of indigenous tree species, and provides
environmental education programs for students, professionals, and visitors.
In addition to improving the environmental landscape, the program creates
jobs and a living wage for hundreds of people in a country where half the
population lives below the poverty line.
Beginning in 2003, ATP began a micro-enterprise reforestation program in the
rural refugee village of Aygut. The Backyard Nursery Program was designed to
simultaneously regenerate the local forests and reduce poverty by providing
jobs. The program has expanded from a pilot program of 17 families to over
300 families, who produced nearly 300,000 trees this year. And, ATP
established the Mirak Family Reforestation Nursery in Margahovit village in
2005, which will have the capacity to produce over one million trees each
year.
~SArmenia Tree Project is honored to be a part of the UNEP Billion Tree
Campaign,~T stated Executive Director Jeff Masarjian. ~SAs we begin organizing
our 2007 programs, we are expecting to plant 60,000 fruit and decorative
trees from our Karin and Khachpar nurseries, 230,000 tree seedlings from our
backyard nursery program, and 210,000 pine and other reforestation seedlings
from our nursery in Margahovit.~T
~SWe were inspired by the UNEP Billion Tree Campaign announcement by Nobel
laureate Wangari Maathai at the UN meeting on climate change in Nairobi last
month, and we were the first organization to join the campaign with a pledge
from the Republic of Armenia,~T added Masarjian. ~SWe are proud to join this
international effort to plant trees to fight climate change, which is
worsened by rampant deforestation around the world.~T
About Armenia Tree Project
Armenia Tree Project (ATP), a grassroots-supported non-profit organization
based in Watertown and Yerevan, conducts vitally important environmental
projects in Armenia's impoverished and deforested zones and seeks support in
advancing its reforestation mission.
Since 1994, ATP has made enormous strides in combating desertification in
the biologically diverse but threatened Caucasus region. Nearly 1.5 million
trees have been planted and restored, and hundreds of jobs have been created
for Armenians in seasonal tree-regeneration programs. For more information,
visit www.ArmeniaTree.org.
Photo caption:
(Karapetyan Family.jpg) The Karapetyan Family with their thriving backyard
micro-enterprise nursery in the village of Aygut; this is one of the
hundreds of families that Armenia Tree Project (ATP) has employed in the
Getik River Valley through its Backyard Nursery Program
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
65 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472 USA
Tel: (617) 926-TREE (8733)
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.armeniatree.org
Press Release
December 5, 2006
Armenia Tree Project Pledge Contributes to UNEP Billion Tree Campaign
YEREVAN, Armenia and WATERTOWN, Massachusetts--Armenia Tree Project (ATP)
has joined the worldwide tree planting campaign launched by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
As part of the ~SPlant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign~T
[www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign], ATP pledged to plant at least 500,000
trees in 2007. This will be part of Armenia~Rs contribution to the UNEP goal
to plant at least one billion trees worldwide during 2007.
ATP was founded in 1994 in to further Armenia~Rs economic and social
development by assisting the Armenian people to use trees to improve their
environment and standard of living. Guided by the need to promote
self-sufficiency, aid those with the fewest resources, and conserve the
indigenous ecosystem, ATP mobilizes resources to fund reforestation and the
preservation of remaining ecosystems.
Through interrelated programs including urban and rural tree planting,
environmental education, and advocacy, ATP stands at the forefront of
addressing Armenia~Rs environmental challenges.
Over the past 12 years, ATP~Rs Community Tree Planting program has
facilitated the planting and restoration of more than 800,000 trees at over
600 sites in Armenia. Fifty thousand trees are grown each year to supply
this program at nurseries located in the refugee villages of Karin and
Khachpar.
At these two nurseries, ATP conducts research on tree propagation
techniques, produces 53 varieties of indigenous tree species, and provides
environmental education programs for students, professionals, and visitors.
In addition to improving the environmental landscape, the program creates
jobs and a living wage for hundreds of people in a country where half the
population lives below the poverty line.
Beginning in 2003, ATP began a micro-enterprise reforestation program in the
rural refugee village of Aygut. The Backyard Nursery Program was designed to
simultaneously regenerate the local forests and reduce poverty by providing
jobs. The program has expanded from a pilot program of 17 families to over
300 families, who produced nearly 300,000 trees this year. And, ATP
established the Mirak Family Reforestation Nursery in Margahovit village in
2005, which will have the capacity to produce over one million trees each
year.
~SArmenia Tree Project is honored to be a part of the UNEP Billion Tree
Campaign,~T stated Executive Director Jeff Masarjian. ~SAs we begin organizing
our 2007 programs, we are expecting to plant 60,000 fruit and decorative
trees from our Karin and Khachpar nurseries, 230,000 tree seedlings from our
backyard nursery program, and 210,000 pine and other reforestation seedlings
from our nursery in Margahovit.~T
~SWe were inspired by the UNEP Billion Tree Campaign announcement by Nobel
laureate Wangari Maathai at the UN meeting on climate change in Nairobi last
month, and we were the first organization to join the campaign with a pledge
from the Republic of Armenia,~T added Masarjian. ~SWe are proud to join this
international effort to plant trees to fight climate change, which is
worsened by rampant deforestation around the world.~T
About Armenia Tree Project
Armenia Tree Project (ATP), a grassroots-supported non-profit organization
based in Watertown and Yerevan, conducts vitally important environmental
projects in Armenia's impoverished and deforested zones and seeks support in
advancing its reforestation mission.
Since 1994, ATP has made enormous strides in combating desertification in
the biologically diverse but threatened Caucasus region. Nearly 1.5 million
trees have been planted and restored, and hundreds of jobs have been created
for Armenians in seasonal tree-regeneration programs. For more information,
visit www.ArmeniaTree.org.
Photo caption:
(Karapetyan Family.jpg) The Karapetyan Family with their thriving backyard
micro-enterprise nursery in the village of Aygut; this is one of the
hundreds of families that Armenia Tree Project (ATP) has employed in the
Getik River Valley through its Backyard Nursery Program
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress