ANTI-LOGGING PROGRAM NOT ON SCHEDULE
SOCIETY, Daily news | ankakh | November 12, 2010 15:13Due to a lack of technical and human resources, an anti-logging program sponsored by World Bank (WB) has achieved only 34 percent of impact instead of the projected 60-70 percent over the past two years.
In 2008, World Bank assigned a $ 395,000 grant for creating a unique monitoring group in Armenia (which was supposed to function three years) to study forests of Armenia, as well as to register cases of illegal logging, and to control usage of timber.
Vigen Sargsyan, External Affairs Officer of World Bank, is worried that the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia, which has been granted the program, will not manage to fulfill it within a year.
Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture state that they lack specialists with knowledge of the English language; neither do they have technical equipment – a fact not taken seriously by WB representatives.
“The objective was to have it realized by the ministry. However, we do not see a desire by them [ministry representatives],” Sargsyan told ArmeniaNow.
Yeghishe Jhangiryan, head of Financial-Economic and Audit Department of the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia, told ArmeniaNow that they would conclude the program by all means.
According to data reported by EcoLur NGO website, official research shows 11.2 percent of Armenia’s total territory to be wooded, whereas, non-official research shows only 7-8 percent.
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