Yerevan Magazine

(YEREVAN) During the winter of 1992 while visiting Armenia, philanthropist Carolyn Mugar saw that thousands of trees were being cut for fuel, and families desperate to heat their homes were even burning their own furniture to stay warm. She committed to preventing further deforestation by founding Armenia Tree Project (ATP) in 1994. Nurseries were... established in Karin and Khachpar villages, and the Community Tree Planting (CTP) program emerged to plant high quality fruit and decorative trees at urban and rural sites throughout the country. This fall, ATP's CTP program planted another 28,383 trees at 75 sites throughout Armenia and Artsakh. "ATP's SEEDS program-or Social, Economic, and Environmental Development for Sustainability-is wrapping up its reforestation programs in Northern Armenia, so the total number of trees planted by ATP will be even higher by end of year," explains CTP program manager Arthur Harutyunyan. "It's remarkable to think that since 1994, ATP's programs have reached 327 cities, towns, and villages out of a total of 915 in the entire country. In all of these places, we have greened 931 sites," notes Harutyunyan. "Of course we hope that, through the ongoing commitment of our supporters in the diaspora and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that we will eventually reach every city and village." ATP uses a stringent site selection process in order to ensure the highest possible survival rate for these trees, which averages nearly 80 percent at CTP sites. "When a community requests trees, we visit the site and inspect the soil conditions and the availability of irrigation water," explains Harutyunyan. "More importantly, we determine the level of interest and commitment of the local community to the trees. This provides an indicator for the care that these trees will receive." Several high profile plantings were completed this fall in partnership with Synopsys Armenia, HSBC Bank, and the US Peace Corps. ATP has been planting trees with HSBC Bank Armenia since 2007, and the company ...Read More