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National Geographic - NatGeo News Watch
March 13 2010
How trees are restoring hope to Armenia
Posted on March 13, 2010
Armenia has learned the hard way what it means for a country to lose
its forests--and the huge backbreaking effort required to replant
them. But in its struggle and determination to restore its trees,
Armenia is an inspiration for the rest of the planet.
The endeavor to bring trees back to Armenia--a Massachusetts-size
nation on the borders of Iran and Turkey--is thanks mostly to an
initiative called the Armenia Tree Project, a program supported by the
international conservation charity WWF and BMU/KfW, the German
Development Bank.
The Armenia Tree Project has been raising and planting trees
throughout the country for almost 16 years. Last year one million
trees were planted, a record that brings the total of trees planted
over the life of the project to about 3.5 million.
Picture courtesy of Armenia Tree Project
A million plantings is perhaps a tiny portion of the hundreds of
millions of trees that were lost during the great deforestation of
Armenia of the last century--but think about it: A million trees
required a million individual efforts, holes dug, backs bent, tender
hands placing seedlings in the soil, careful nurturing of saplings to
raise them to productivity.
All of this is done by individuals determined that their trees will
become forests that will sustain livelihoods and restore a vibrant
environment to Armenia.
What happened to Armenia and its trees, and what's being done to
reverse the devastation of its forests? Nat Geo News Watch interviewed
Jason Sohigian, deputy director of the Armenia Tree Project, when he
recently visited Washington, D.C.
Watch this 16-minute documentary (commissioned by the Armenia Tree
Project) for the background to the crisis that led to the destruction
of the country's forests, what will happen if the nation can't reverse
the loss of its trees, and how ordinary people are pulling together to
reinvent Armenia and its future through restoring its trees.
Armenia Tree Project video
Lack of alternate fuel sources caused the loss of Armenia's forests,
Sohigian said in the interview with Nat Geo News Watch, especially
during the years after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991,
when people had no other way to keep warm than to cut down trees for
fuel.
Ideally, forest should cover 25 percent of Armenia, Sohigian said. But
now, even after a big replanting effort, the country's tree cover is
in the range of only 7 or 8 percent.
Where the trees have been cut, the land is often degraded and
desertification has set in as topsoil washes away.
To make matters worse, the changing global climate threatens the last
fragments of forest, especially if rainfall declines.
"One of our goals is to try to tip the balance back to where forests
can regenerate naturally, which we can do provided we don't continue
to lose trees," Sohigian said.
Picture courtesy of Armenia Tree Project
"We're trying to get young people involved in investing in Armenia's
future," Sohigian said. "This program is also a way for Armenians
outside the country to build the future of Armenia, especially this
year, the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide [1915-1917]. We
encourage Armenians--and others--to support us with the future of the
country in mind. It's why we're calling this initiative 'Trees of
Hope.'"
Trees of Hope is one way to get involved, by sponsoring the program to
plant trees. Another way is to support the Armenia Tree Project's
focus on education.
"Education is a big focus for us this year," Sohigian said. "We're
working with teachers to educate children about the environment, and
we've partnered with the Yale University Global Institute of
Sustainable Forestry to provide sustainable forestry training for
adults.
"By asking the worldwide Armenian community to sponsor these
activities, we're telling them to put their roots back into Armenia in
a tangible form. It helps Armenians everywhere create an emotional and
physical connection to their ancestral country."
Picture courtesy of Armenia Tree Project
The Armenia Tree Project works to afforest Armenia with natural
forests, planting a mixture of native trees that should in time expand
and regenerate forests naturally. "We are really trying to recreate
natural forests, rather than plantations for harvesting," Sohigian
said. The partnership with Yale is focused on training foresters to
plant, maintain and harvest such "natural" forests sustainably. Part
of the training initiative is the production of a sustainable forestry
manual.
"We are bringing the best practices in international forestry to
Armenia," Sohigian said. "The next step is to organize engagement
meetings with the people who live in or near the forests to teach and
encourage them to maximize their efforts to protect the forests around
them."
A more lofty goal is to win national protection for forests as
wilderness sanctuaries, particularly where charismatic animals such as
the Persian leopard live.
Fruit and nut trees are also provided by the Armenia Tree Project to
people in urban areas, so that individuals may plant trees on the
streets or in their yards. This provides food to eat and trade as well
as a more pleasant, landscaped environment.
An example of how Armenia's urban areas have become green again is
this school, in pictures made ten years apart.
Picture courtesy of Armenia Tree Project
The massive tree planting program has also stimulated employment for
Armenians, from the cultivation of seedlings to planting to protection
of the nascent forests.
In many ways the effort to restore trees to Armenia is a restoration
of the nation's vitality.
Learn more and find out how you can support this intiative on the
Armenia Tree Project Web site.
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/n ews/chiefeditor/2010/03/trees-restore-hope-to-arme nia.html
March 13 2010
How trees are restoring hope to Armenia
Posted on March 13, 2010
Armenia has learned the hard way what it means for a country to lose
its forests--and the huge backbreaking effort required to replant
them. But in its struggle and determination to restore its trees,
Armenia is an inspiration for the rest of the planet.
The endeavor to bring trees back to Armenia--a Massachusetts-size
nation on the borders of Iran and Turkey--is thanks mostly to an
initiative called the Armenia Tree Project, a program supported by the
international conservation charity WWF and BMU/KfW, the German
Development Bank.
The Armenia Tree Project has been raising and planting trees
throughout the country for almost 16 years. Last year one million
trees were planted, a record that brings the total of trees planted
over the life of the project to about 3.5 million.
Picture courtesy of Armenia Tree Project
A million plantings is perhaps a tiny portion of the hundreds of
millions of trees that were lost during the great deforestation of
Armenia of the last century--but think about it: A million trees
required a million individual efforts, holes dug, backs bent, tender
hands placing seedlings in the soil, careful nurturing of saplings to
raise them to productivity.
All of this is done by individuals determined that their trees will
become forests that will sustain livelihoods and restore a vibrant
environment to Armenia.
What happened to Armenia and its trees, and what's being done to
reverse the devastation of its forests? Nat Geo News Watch interviewed
Jason Sohigian, deputy director of the Armenia Tree Project, when he
recently visited Washington, D.C.
Watch this 16-minute documentary (commissioned by the Armenia Tree
Project) for the background to the crisis that led to the destruction
of the country's forests, what will happen if the nation can't reverse
the loss of its trees, and how ordinary people are pulling together to
reinvent Armenia and its future through restoring its trees.
Armenia Tree Project video
Lack of alternate fuel sources caused the loss of Armenia's forests,
Sohigian said in the interview with Nat Geo News Watch, especially
during the years after independence from the Soviet Union in 1991,
when people had no other way to keep warm than to cut down trees for
fuel.
Ideally, forest should cover 25 percent of Armenia, Sohigian said. But
now, even after a big replanting effort, the country's tree cover is
in the range of only 7 or 8 percent.
Where the trees have been cut, the land is often degraded and
desertification has set in as topsoil washes away.
To make matters worse, the changing global climate threatens the last
fragments of forest, especially if rainfall declines.
"One of our goals is to try to tip the balance back to where forests
can regenerate naturally, which we can do provided we don't continue
to lose trees," Sohigian said.
Picture courtesy of Armenia Tree Project
"We're trying to get young people involved in investing in Armenia's
future," Sohigian said. "This program is also a way for Armenians
outside the country to build the future of Armenia, especially this
year, the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide [1915-1917]. We
encourage Armenians--and others--to support us with the future of the
country in mind. It's why we're calling this initiative 'Trees of
Hope.'"
Trees of Hope is one way to get involved, by sponsoring the program to
plant trees. Another way is to support the Armenia Tree Project's
focus on education.
"Education is a big focus for us this year," Sohigian said. "We're
working with teachers to educate children about the environment, and
we've partnered with the Yale University Global Institute of
Sustainable Forestry to provide sustainable forestry training for
adults.
"By asking the worldwide Armenian community to sponsor these
activities, we're telling them to put their roots back into Armenia in
a tangible form. It helps Armenians everywhere create an emotional and
physical connection to their ancestral country."
Picture courtesy of Armenia Tree Project
The Armenia Tree Project works to afforest Armenia with natural
forests, planting a mixture of native trees that should in time expand
and regenerate forests naturally. "We are really trying to recreate
natural forests, rather than plantations for harvesting," Sohigian
said. The partnership with Yale is focused on training foresters to
plant, maintain and harvest such "natural" forests sustainably. Part
of the training initiative is the production of a sustainable forestry
manual.
"We are bringing the best practices in international forestry to
Armenia," Sohigian said. "The next step is to organize engagement
meetings with the people who live in or near the forests to teach and
encourage them to maximize their efforts to protect the forests around
them."
A more lofty goal is to win national protection for forests as
wilderness sanctuaries, particularly where charismatic animals such as
the Persian leopard live.
Fruit and nut trees are also provided by the Armenia Tree Project to
people in urban areas, so that individuals may plant trees on the
streets or in their yards. This provides food to eat and trade as well
as a more pleasant, landscaped environment.
An example of how Armenia's urban areas have become green again is
this school, in pictures made ten years apart.
Picture courtesy of Armenia Tree Project
The massive tree planting program has also stimulated employment for
Armenians, from the cultivation of seedlings to planting to protection
of the nascent forests.
In many ways the effort to restore trees to Armenia is a restoration
of the nation's vitality.
Learn more and find out how you can support this intiative on the
Armenia Tree Project Web site.
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/n ews/chiefeditor/2010/03/trees-restore-hope-to-arme nia.html