Yerevan residents seeking a patch of greenspace for a bit of respite from the urban clamor, especially during the dog days of summer, probably won’t be surprised to learn that such areas in the city are way less than accepted international standards.

At a forum today entitled “Challenges of Urban Planning in Yerevan, Regional Environmental Centre for the Caucasus specialist Dshkhuhie Sahakyan said per capita greenspace in the Armenian capital measures eight square meters. The international standard is fifty.

Sona Ayvazyan, who heads the Transparency International Anticorruption Center in Armenia, the NGO that organized today’s forum accused the Yerevan Municipality of not providing full details of a draft master plan for the city now in the works.

Yerevan, since Armenia’s independence, has lacked a coherent strategy as to how the city should develop. This, coupled with a weak system of legal restrictions, has led to a patchwork of urban construction often at odds with the needs of its residents.

The NGO, on July 29, wrote that while the Yerevan Municipality unveiled its new master plan initiative, “the municipality failed to meet several legal requirements, including providing a summary, details about the master plan, and information on where to access the document and submit feedback.”

Ayvazyan, who opened today’s forum, said such discussions are vital to engage the public and sector specialists in the drafting of a new master plan for Yerevan.

Yerevan Municipality representatives were invited to today’s forum but failed to show.

Sahakyan noted that some targets set by Yerevan’s 2017 Green City Action Plan (GCAP), funded by the funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), have yet to be fully implemented.

 In 2023, the Armenian environmental organization EcoLur, with support from the CEE Bankwatch Network, launched a campaign to inform the public about the implementation of the GCAPs for Yerevan and Gyumri.

EcoLur’s  greenspace assessment follows:

*Yerevan Municipality has not yet reached the green area per capita target for 2022 set in the GCAP.

*Yerevan has lost a significant amount of its green areas and currently has insufficient open spaces for large-scale afforestation.

*Forest land is being developed to compensate for the infeasibility of forest restoration in the capital.