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ARMENIA TREE PROJECT
65 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472 USA
Tel: (617) 926-TREE
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.armeniatree.org
PRESS RELEASE
March 9, 2009
'Evil Quartet' Film Highlights Threats to Biodiversity in Armenia
YEREVAN--Vem Media Arts of Yerevan has completed the tenth in a series of
eleven films about environmental issues in the Republic of Armenia. The new
film, "Evil Quartet," is about the threats to biodiversity. The 22-minute
documentary was produced by Manuk Hergnyan, written by Inga Zarafyan, and
directed by Hayk Kbeyan.
The film provides a scientific overview of an ecosystem and highlights
several endangered species in Armenia, the impacts of human development on
wildlife, and the role of hunting and poaching.
Zarafyan highlights the major threats to biodiversity identified by
bio-geographer Jared Diamond of UCLA: aggression of species and overgrazing,
hunting and poaching, chains of extinction, and loss of habitat, noting that
"the music of this quartet is getting louder and louder in Armenia."
The film includes testimony from experts at the Botany Institute, Zoology
Institute, Center for Prevention of Infectious Diseases, World Wildlife
Fund, and Saint Louis Zoo, who address the risk of losing numerous endemic
species of rare flora and fauna found only in Armenia, with many listed in
the Red Book of endangered species.
Since the Bezoar goat and Moufflon (wild sheep) are declining in numbers,
for example, the Near Eastern Leopard is close to extinction.
The film notes that the natural corridors of the leopard stretch over dozens
of kilometers in southern Armenia and parts of Nakhichevan and Nagorno
Karabagh, and that they are highly valued by hunters. WWF wildlife expert
Alexander Malkhasyan indicates that leopards are killed at a rate of one
every two years, and that "if the situation does not change, we will lose
the leopard forever."
He points out that WWF photographed one of the rare leopards in Armenia for
the first time in 2005, and for the second time in 2007. "The situation of
leopards in Armenia is not good, with only 5-7 leopards remaining," warns
Malkhasyan.
"We have to realize the truth that while preserving the biodiversity of
species we preserve ourselves as Homo sapiens," concludes the narrator of
the documentary.
The film "Evil Quartet" was sponsored by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership
Fund, World Wildlife Fund Armenia, Armenian Forests NGO, and Armenia Tree
Project, and it is available for viewing on Google Video. To acquire a copy
of the film in DVD format with English subtitles, contact Armenia Tree
Project via email at [email protected].
PHOTO CAPTION: World Wildlife Fund Armenia took this rare photograph of an
endangered Near Eastern Leopard in Southern Armenia in 2005.
65 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472 USA
Tel: (617) 926-TREE
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.armeniatree.org
PRESS RELEASE
March 9, 2009
'Evil Quartet' Film Highlights Threats to Biodiversity in Armenia
YEREVAN--Vem Media Arts of Yerevan has completed the tenth in a series of
eleven films about environmental issues in the Republic of Armenia. The new
film, "Evil Quartet," is about the threats to biodiversity. The 22-minute
documentary was produced by Manuk Hergnyan, written by Inga Zarafyan, and
directed by Hayk Kbeyan.
The film provides a scientific overview of an ecosystem and highlights
several endangered species in Armenia, the impacts of human development on
wildlife, and the role of hunting and poaching.
Zarafyan highlights the major threats to biodiversity identified by
bio-geographer Jared Diamond of UCLA: aggression of species and overgrazing,
hunting and poaching, chains of extinction, and loss of habitat, noting that
"the music of this quartet is getting louder and louder in Armenia."
The film includes testimony from experts at the Botany Institute, Zoology
Institute, Center for Prevention of Infectious Diseases, World Wildlife
Fund, and Saint Louis Zoo, who address the risk of losing numerous endemic
species of rare flora and fauna found only in Armenia, with many listed in
the Red Book of endangered species.
Since the Bezoar goat and Moufflon (wild sheep) are declining in numbers,
for example, the Near Eastern Leopard is close to extinction.
The film notes that the natural corridors of the leopard stretch over dozens
of kilometers in southern Armenia and parts of Nakhichevan and Nagorno
Karabagh, and that they are highly valued by hunters. WWF wildlife expert
Alexander Malkhasyan indicates that leopards are killed at a rate of one
every two years, and that "if the situation does not change, we will lose
the leopard forever."
He points out that WWF photographed one of the rare leopards in Armenia for
the first time in 2005, and for the second time in 2007. "The situation of
leopards in Armenia is not good, with only 5-7 leopards remaining," warns
Malkhasyan.
"We have to realize the truth that while preserving the biodiversity of
species we preserve ourselves as Homo sapiens," concludes the narrator of
the documentary.
The film "Evil Quartet" was sponsored by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership
Fund, World Wildlife Fund Armenia, Armenian Forests NGO, and Armenia Tree
Project, and it is available for viewing on Google Video. To acquire a copy
of the film in DVD format with English subtitles, contact Armenia Tree
Project via email at [email protected].
PHOTO CAPTION: World Wildlife Fund Armenia took this rare photograph of an
endangered Near Eastern Leopard in Southern Armenia in 2005.