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  • Illegal Business Harms Nature

    ILLEGAL BUSINESS HARMS NATURE

    A1+
    [03:56 pm] 04 September, 2006

    Armenia which has been importing wood for the last 70 years has
    started to export it.

    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.
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