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Aghavni Eghiazaryan

A Strategic Road or a Fight Over Oak Trees?

Arevhat Grigoryan
Aghavni Yeghiazaryan

"They sold everything man made, and now they are going for what God has created. This is God's work and God will definitely punish us if we let this wonder of nature disappear," said Karen Manvelyan, both as the director of the Armenian office of the World Wildlife Fund and as a citizen of Armenia.

Local residents took reporters from the city of Kapan in the Syunik Marz up to the village of Shikahogh to show then this natural wonder. From the middle of the winding road, there is a beautiful view of a gorge, in the middle of which is stands a grove of aged maple trees, and next to it, a forest so thick that even on the sunniest days it is dark.

The locals say that the gorge, Mtnadzor, has thus far been spared from logging because it is inaccessible. Without a road to the wooded area on the hills in the gorge, no logging trucks or equipment have been able to reach it. But now, that may change.

The road is going to be built

The forest of Mtnadzor may disappear because of just one government decision. The aim is to build a strategic road, which according to the plan commissioned by the Ministry of Communication and Transportation, will pass through the middle of Mtndadzor. "The idea of building the road is not absurd because it makes sense strategically; it the place that the road will pass through that's absurd," said Vladik Martirosyan, a forestry engineer who has dealt with the forests of Kapan for thirty years.

On May 11th, representatives of the Ministries of Nature Protection, Communication and Transportation came to Kapan to discuss alternatives to the planned route. We were informed by the press department of the Ministry of Communication and Transportation, that it is the opinion of their construction engineers that not even the most acceptable of these proposals proposed is a viable alternative. They say that the government of Armenia wants to construct an interstate road, whereas the route favored by the nature protection agency will contain twenty more hair-pin turns, be 19.5 km longer, and will be 2,240 m above sea level, rather than the 2,005m altitude in the transportation ministry's plan. This route will be more expensive to build; it will not be the less winding, easily passable road in line with certain international standards that the government aims to construct.

But the people of Kapan have their responses to these and other objections. "They're not saying that the forest has to be chopped down. It's just that the people who've made the plan have followed some standards, that the road must have an incline of no more than 8 degrees, and that it mustn't be higher than 2,000 meters above sea level," said Deputy Governor of Syunik Robert Sargsyan. "But if it's possible to have an incline of 9 degrees and a height of 2,100 meters, then let's do that, so we don't damage the forest." Vladik Martirosyan explained, "According to the rules regarding logging in mountainous forests, if the incline is greater than 30 degrees, it is forbidden to cut down trees or take, let's say, 10 percent of the forest for operation. A road with that kind of incline is not supposed to be constructed. In addition to trees falling onto the road, it will cause landslides. Thousands of trees will be destroyed; the road should not be constructed that way."

Furthermore, almost everyone we interviewed brought up the following detail: "On the northern hill the road will not operate, because it will be closed in the winter." They suggested reading Bakunts: "The only pathway going to Mtnadzor is closed right after the first snow; till spring not a single man steps in the forests."

A May 3rd press release by the Social-ecological Association describes the damage that will take place if the proposed road through Mtnadzor is constructed: "About 14,000 mature trees with a mass of five thousand cubic meters and 90,000 thousand immature trees. Because of the explosions of the land that will take place and construction equipment, in the best case scenario, the animals of Mtnadzor will be forced to migrate from the area that has been their safe habitat."

Meanwhile, on April 11th, before the NGOs had a chance to find out what was going on and insist that neither the laws of Armenia nor international agreements be broken, the State Purchasing Agency, on the order of the Ministry of Communication & Transportation, organized a tender for the construction of the five sections of the road that were "still being discussed". Contracts were awarded to four construction companies: the Kapan RCOJSC (Road Constructing Open Joint-stock Company), the Meghri RCOJSC, Dorozhnik Ltd, and Kapavor Ltd. Looking at the equipment that has been transported to Mtnadzor, you see no evidence of these companies. The trucks that we saw had no license plates. When we asked whom they belonged to, one of the drivers said, "These are Marat's trucks."

We heard it on TV

"We heard on TV that a Meghri-Tsav-Kapan road was going to be built. I asked the local road construction authority and they hadn't been aware of anything either, they just said that there was a direct order from the president and that a road was needed for strategic purposes, " said Ruben Mkrtchyan, director of the Shikahogh State Preserve. Then we informed the Ministry of Nature Protection about it and we found out that no one knew anything and that there were no documents about it."

The local population does want a road, but they do not want to sacrifice Mtnadzor. "Mtnadzor is one of the last remaining areas on Earth where man has not disturbed nature, where ecosystems have developed in a natural way," said Vladik Martirosyan.

We have some information that Syunik Governor Suren Khachatryan has taken a tough stance on protecting Mtnadzor, meeting with the president to discuss the matter.

Aram Aghasyan, the director of the Department of the Administration of Specially Protected Areas of the Ministry of Nature Protection said, "We heard about the road on TV and no real document exists. We deal with such things when it's time for the expert study. The Ministry of Communication and Transportation just gave it to us for a study and it's being processed."

Preparation to construct the road is, as usual, taking place prior to the expert study, before they find out if they will have to cut down ancient oak trees for the road, or if other less barbaric solutions can be found. The study is not yet complete, and people are not yet aware of the fate that may lay in store for the area, but all the equipment necessary for road construction is already in place in the villages of Tsav and Shikahogh.

Nature protection agencies repeat that Armenia has signed the Orhus Pact, according to which public hearings should be held before any kind of activity that adversely affects the environment is implemented.

The Armenian office of the WWF has temporarily withheld its support from protection projects in the Shikahogh Preserve, which have been financed by the CPF (Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund).

"It's possible that other projects being implemented by the same fund in Armenia will be terminated. International organization cannot trust a country that violates international conventions," said WWF director Karen Manvelyan.

Public hearings began only after an initial estimate for the plan had already been calculated. The Ministry of Communication & Transportation had charged Transnakhagits CJSC with the task. We were unable to ascertain whether they really didn't know that the forest of Mtnadzor was a part of the Shikahogh Preserve, or they were just pretending not to know.

We were informed that the words "preserve" and "forest" were never mentioned in the ministry's order; the word "section" was used instead. We asked whether the people who had come up with the plan had known that the road they had sketched passed right through the middle of the preserve. An employee of Transnakhagits, who asked to remain anonymous, said, "We worked with the order and details given to us by the Ministry of Communication and Transportation, and planned it exactly how they wanted."

In response to complaints by public organizations, local residents, and journalists the stakeholder ministries sent their specialists to examine the area and find an alternative route for the road.

The Ministry of Communication and Transportation, however, has no intention of discussing alternatives. Tamar Ghalechyan, director of the ministry's press department, said on May 17th that the ministry had not changed its mind and that the road would be constructed as planned; that is, it will pass right through the middle of Mtnadzor.

"If they refuse to accept any of the proposed alternatives, then we can clearly state that the road is not the real issue," said Karen Manvelyan. "The plan for a 'strategic' road is just to get the forest and the wood."

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