PRESS RELEASE
April 13, 2006

ARMENIA TREE PROJECT GREENS MORE THAN 100 COMMUNITY SITES THIS SPRING

ATP worked with families at the Settlement of Hope established by the Diaconia Charitable Fund to assist vulnerable families; close to 400 fruit and decorative trees were planted by residents with ATP on March 27

YEREVAN--Since the early 1990s, Armenia Tree Project (ATP) has been successfully collaborating with local communities and institutions to plant hundreds of thousands of trees through its Community Tree Planting (CTP) program.

The CTP program begins by surveying the appropriateness of the site and the community to receive trees. The program uses criteria such as the availability of irrigation water, soil quality, caretakers, and residents' enthusiasm for planting and growing trees. With this flagship program, ATP has collaborated with people at over 500 sites in Yerevan and every region throughout Armenia, including Artsakh.

On a daily basis, three ATP monitors--Navasard Dadyan, Arthur Harutunyan, and Seyran Hovhannisyan--evaluate potential planting sites and visit sites that were planted in previous years to check growth rates and provide technical assistance. By the end of March, ATP selected 115 community sites that were eligible to receive seedlings, and had begun the process of helping residents plant over 140,000 new trees at schools, senior centers, orphanages, hospitals, kindergartens, and other non-profit institutions.

On March 29, Nor Nork residents and the Habitat for Humanity youth group participated in trainings with ATP and planted nearly 1,000 decorative and fruit trees; ATP has planted over 10,000 trees in Nor Nork

To ensure a high survival rate at CTP sites, ATP publishes training material on tree planting and tree care. Prior to planting, ATP distributes this information to local residents and trains them on topics such as the proper depth for planting new seedlings, how often to irrigate seedlings, and how to monitor the growth of the trees. ATP also distributes hoses, shovels, and other supplies and equipment as needed.

Sites in eight regions of Armenia--Armavir, Aragatsotn, Vayots Dzor, Shirak, Ararat, Kotayk, Syunik, and Lori--received fruit and decorative trees from ATP for village orchards, backyards, gardens, and common spaces.

"In a few years, the people in these villages will be able to reap fruitful harvests and be in a position to receive great benefits from these trees," emphasized CTP Program Manager Anahit Gharibyan. Last year alone, ATP's trees in various communities had a harvest of over 250,000 pounds of apricots, apples, peaches, plums, and cherries.

After receiving lessons on tree planting and tree care from ATP staff, over 40 students from grades 6-7 in Parakar Village near Yerevan planted close to 100 trees on the grounds of their school on March 23, 2006 ATP worked with children at the SOS Village in Kotayk, which was established by SOS Kinderdorf International after the 1988 earthquake; over 300 fruit and decorative trees were planted on March 27 and April 12 After receiving lessons on tree planting and tree care from ATP staff, over 40 students from grades 6-8 in Voskehat Village near Etchmiadzin planted more than 100 trees on the grounds of their school on March 28

ATP's nurseries in the refugee villages of Karin and Khachpar produce all of the seedlings that are planted by the CTP program each year. Some of the neighborhoods in Yerevan that received trees include Malatia Sebastia, Davitashen, Achapniak, and Zeytun Kanaker, and ATP planted trees at the State Medical University, European Regional Academy, and Genocide Memorial Park.

ATP was founded in 1994 with the vision of securing Armenia's future by protecting its environment and restoring its degraded forests. ATP advances Armenia's socio-economic development by mobilizing resources for large-scale reforestation, community-based tree planting, environmental education and advocacy, and rural development through job creation. ATP uses trees to improve the standard of living of Armenians, promoting self-sufficiency and aiding those with fewest resources first.

Over the past 12 years, ATP has planted and rejuvenated over 750,000 trees. With the establishment of the new Mirak Family reforestation nursery in Margahovit and expansion of the backyard nursery program in the Getik River Valley, ATP's Rural and Mountainous Development (RMD) program is working toward the goal of planting over one million trees in 2006.

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