Posted on December, 20 2013

On December 16, 2013 the second meeting of the Steering Committee (SC) was organized by WWF Armenia, which implements in Armenia the EU funded regional project “Increasing the Resilience of Forest Ecosystems against Climate Change in the Southern Caucasus through Forest Transformation”. The event was attended by representatives from the EU Delegation to Armenia, RA Ministries of Agriculture and Nature Protection, Bioresources Management Agency and “Zikatar” Environmental Center, was well as “Hayantar” SNCO, REC Caucasus and ATP Foundation.

The opening and welcome speeches were given by Karen Manvelyan (WWF Armenia), John Barker (EU Delegation to Armenia) and Matthias Lichtenberger (WWF Germany). Then the Project Coordinator Siranush Galstyan made a presentation of the project activities implemented during the last year with focus on the project successes and achievements, challenges and difficulties as well as the activities planned till the end of the project in 2014. This was followed by the session of questions and answers and later by discussion about the project and related issues.

In particular it was mentioned about the importance of having longer period of implementation for such forestry projects and sustainability of activities upon project completion. The capacity building and mass media components of the project were mentioned among main strengths of the project as the training module and guidelines in forest transformation should serve as the basis for further replication of project activities in other areas of Armenia. Meanwhile, it was stressed that more training is needed especially for journalists so that they have better understanding of related issues and are able to elucidate them for large public. In general it was concluded that the project made good progress towards achieving its goals, including demonstration pilot sites in Lori and Tavush Marzes of Armenia as well as communities involvement in project activities with respective awareness raising and provision of information on related topics.

More information about WWF Armenia’s EU funded forest transformation project can be found here.

For further information:

Siranush Galstyan
Project Coordinator
Tel: +374 10 58 89 83 (ext. 14)
Email: sgalstyan@wwfcaucasus.org

Gera Voskanyan
Partnership and Communications Manager
Tel: +374 10 58 89 83 (ext. 14)
Email: gvoskanyan@wwfcaucasus.org