ATP News

PRESS RELEASE
February 29, 2008

Nationwide Public Survey Conducted in Armenia on Deforestation and Protection of Forests

YEREVAN--Two years ago, the EcoArmenia Consortium began an important initiative aimed at addressing the multi-faceted problem of deforestation in Armenia. In order to first assess the level of knowledge about forests and deforestation, the Turpanjian Center for Policy Analysis at American University of Armenia was contracted to conduct a nationwide study to determine the public’s beliefs, attitudes, and behavior with regard to protection of forests and to understand wood use patterns.

Households were selected from Yerevan and from the ten regions proportionately to reflect the most recent census figures, and one city and one village participated in the survey from each region. The Turpanjian Center designed custom measures and an original questionnaire based on the information needs of EcoArmenia, and conducted a total of 1,006 interviews in December 2006.

According to the 2007 report prepared by Dr. Lucig H. Danielian, director of the Turpanjian Center, and research associate Ani Dallakyan, nearly 88 percent of the survey respondents were worried that their children will live in a worse environment than they do now, and nearly all respondents believed that deforestation is a significant problem.

More than half of the respondents believed that the condition of forests has been getting worse in the past five years, only 43 percent were at least somewhat satisfied with the protection of forests in Armenia, and almost all respondents claimed that the Armenian government should make forest protection a priority.

Nearly all respondents believed that everyone in Armenia must take personal responsibility for the environment and that forests should be saved for the benefit of the environment and people. Almost all respondents stated that the government should not allow the export of wood. However, almost all respondents indicated that it is acceptable to harvest wood from forests as long as it is managed in a sustainable way.

The importance of forests was understood by the majority of respondents, with 83 percent reporting that forests are important for ensuring a long-term supply of wood. Nine in ten respondents believed that the decrease of forest land can result in the loss of mushrooms, herbs and berries, micro-climate change, and loss of biodiversity.

Seven in ten respondents mentioned that they use forests for relaxation and recreation. Fewer respondents, five in ten, go to forests for gathering non-wood products like herbs, and only one in ten reported going to forests for gathering wood for their own home fuel use. About 30 percent of the respondents use wood at home as fuel for heating and/or cooking, and the majority of them live in regions with large forest areas.

On average, 68 percent of household heating fuel and 22 percent of cooking fuel comes from burning wood. Interviewed households used a total of 6.7 cubic meters of wood for heating and cooking per year on average, and they spent an average of 8,700 drams per month to purchase the wood.

This study was accompanied by another 2007 study by the Economy and Values Research Center in Yerevan, titled “The Economics of Armenia’s Forest Industry,” which recommends a series of sustainable solutions to reduce the pressure on Armenia’s forests. A summary of the Turpanjian Center’s work, “Report on Nationwide Survey Findings: Deforestation and Protection of Forests,” is available on the Armenia Tree Project web site at the following link:

http://www.armeniatree.org/thethreat/resources/2007_aua_forest_survey_ecoarmenia.pdf

The EcoArmenia Consortium was initiated by the most active environmental organizations in Armenia, including World Wildlife Fund Armenia, the Environmental Conservation and Research Center at American University of Armenia, Armenia Tree Project, and Armenian Forests NGO.

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