Environmental News

Stop the Poisoning!

Will Teghut's Forest Be the Next Victim of Mining?
By Moorad Mooradian and Jeff Masarjian

Armenian Weekly
June 30, 2007

Armenia is located at the convergence of three major bio-geographic regions, and has within it seven of the world’s nine climate zones. Although it consists of only 29,000 square kilometers, amounting to 0.05 percent of the land mass of the northern hemisphere, it is home to 40 percent of all landscape types found there.

As a result, Armenia has enormous biological diversity, including 8,800 plant species, half of which are at risk of extinction; 13 species and 360 varieties of wheat, which was first cultivated there 10,000 years ago; 260 species of trees and bushes; 17,500 invertebrate and 500 vertebrate species of animals, of which 346 species are birds (of the 500 vertebrate species, 300 are rare or declining, and 18 are at risk of extinction); and one-third of the 156 reptile species found in the former Soviet Union.

Today, Armenia’s forest cover is at its lowest point in history, estimated by some to be at less than eight percent of its territory. The loss of forests is caused by poverty and unemployment, a lack of alternate fuel sources, legal and illegal cutting and export of wood, and improper management. Forests perform important environmental and socioeconomic functions, and when they disappear, long-term consequences result, such as erosion, flooding, landslides, climate extremes, loss of water supply, reduction of topsoil fertility, loss of plant and animal biodiversity, and severe air pollution. The harsh reality is that all of Armenia’s forests may be gone in as little as 20 years at the current rate of deforestation, leading to irreversible environmental damage.

In the small agrarian village of Teghut in northern Armenia, the Armenian Copper Program, a foreign-owned company, is seeking final approval from the government to begin clear cutting over 1,500 acres of forest (an area the size of 1,125 football fields) in preparation for an enormous open pit strip mining operation in search of copper and molybdenum ore. The ore will be separated from the soil by adding various toxic chemical compounds to it. The resulting sludge is planned to be dumped in a nearby pristine gorge in Shnogh village. The toxins and heavy metals will leach into the ground and nearby river, creating a permanent death zone in the area and threaten the water quality for people downstream.

We all understand the need for economic development in Armenia, where nearly half the population lives below the poverty line. But should economic growth be pursued regardless of the cost and damage that will be inflicted on the land and the health of the people? If final approval is given to proceed with this mine, eventually the jobs it created will be gone when the ore is depleted. The profits will be exported, and left behind will be a poisoned landscape unsuitable for agricultural production, the permanent loss of innumerable habitats that support unique plants and animals, and a dumpsite that will be a blight on the environment and long term threat to the health of future generations.

SOS Teghut is a coalition of 26 environmental organizations in Armenia that is working together to inform the Armenian public and concerned citizens around the globe of the ecological disaster that is looming in Teghut. We are asking the Armenian government to further analyze the costs and benefits of approving this mine and to consider instead other forms of more sustainable economic development possibilities for the region.

More information and photos about Teghut can be found on the ATP website www.armeniatree.org. Anyone interested in supporting the effort to preserve the landscape there and advocate for more sustainable development can participate in SOS Teghut’s Action Alert by sending an electronic letter to the President and other government officials from the web site as well.

We must consider the legacy our ancestors left to us on this precious land, and do no less for the generations of Armenians to come.

Moorad Mooradian is an ATP Executive Committee member, and Jeff Masarjian is ATP Executive Director.

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