Shortly after taking office in 2018, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan pledged a crackdown on the "wood mafia" targeting Dilijan National Park.

Today, that promise remains unfulfilled and largely forgotten according to Gor Hovhannisyan, founder of the EcoPatrol NGO.

Hovhannisyan’s grassroots organization has long been a major obstacle for illegal loggers. To combat environmental crimes, EcoPatrol members monitor the Dilijan forests on motorcycles, capturing live footage of illegal logging and poaching using helmet-mounted cameras.

“I saw the felled trees myself," Hovhannisyan told Hetq back in 2018. "Foreign tourists would point out that this kind of destruction wouldn’t happen in a normal country. I realized we were losing a beautiful part of Armenia every single year.”

Despite years of threats and physical attacks against EcoPatrol staff and volunteers, Hovhannisyan remains deeply committed to protecting Dilijan's ecosystem.

Speaking with Hetq today, he highlights the ongoing dangers facing the park, citing a severe lack of government oversight and systemic collusion between corrupt officials and commercial logging operations. Hovhannisyan also criticizes a pervasive cultural mindset in Armenia, where citizens often focus strictly on their private property while deflecting responsibility for collective environmental preservation.

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