Berd, Tavoush Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2004

A reader of this blog sent me this letter by Areg Gharabegian, a member of the Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America (AESA), for publication. After checking the veracity of what is claimed within this letter with some local environmental organizations, I have now decided to publish it. Thanks to Karine for sending it on.

GOVERNMENTAL CORRUPTION ENDANGERS THE FAST GROWING TREE PROJECT IN ARMENIA

It has been now 15 years that Armenia is free and the Diaspora has been actively supporting Armenia by sending money and initiating projects to strengthen its independence and improve the economic situation. It is unacceptable to see that some corrupt government officials are taking advantage of the generosity and nationalistic support for homeland of the Diaspora to fill their own pockets. This write up provides background information regarding the Fast Growing Tree Project in Armenia, its accomplishments, and the governmental corruption issues that put some parts of the large plantations that were developed as part of this project, in jeopardy of destruction.

BACKGROUND

Armenia is a mountainous country with approximately 8% forests in its total territory. Up to the early 1990s forests in the country were properly maintained and resources were utilized according to environmental requirements. However, economic and energy blockade, which resulted from political crisis with neighboring countries, brought the country to an energy crisis. This crisis was the main reason for massive deforestation of Armenia. About one million cubic meter of wood was cut, which caused a terribly harmful damage to the forests of the country.

In 1994, the Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America (AESA) of Glendale, California and Institute of Botany of the Armenian Academy of Sciences embarked on a project to introduce fast growing hybrid poplar trees in Armenia, which can be used as fire wood or as soft wood lumber. These trees then can be cut to satisfy the need for wood instead of cutting old trees from established forests. A few years later, the Armenian Forest Service (Hay Andar) also joined the project team.

Approximately 130,000 US and Canadian hybrid poplar cuttings from 59 different hybrid poplar clones have been imported into Armenia and planted in different sites in Armenia since 1994. The two major plantations are in Armavir (Ararat Valley). Approximately 17,000 cuttings of selected six clones were planted on 24 hectares during spring of 1998 and approximately 23,000 cuttings of selected five clones were planted on 28 hectares in the spring of 1999.

These trees are planted using 10-inch long cuttings and they grow to be 6-foot tall in about seven months. Trees that were planted in 1994 and 1995 in Armenia are now 45 to 55-foot high after 11 years. Typically these trees become mature in 10 to 12 years. The main part of these mature tree trunks could be used for producing lumber. Branches and leftovers of the trunk can be used as a biomass source or in production of particleboard.

Wood produced from the fast growing hybrid poplars could be used by the furniture manufacturers in Armenia, who normally import almost all the wood needed. The poplar wood can also be used in the construction industry. Agro-forestry is a viable option for Armenia because Armenia has very limited soil suitable for the agricultural use. Trees that are planted for production on plantations are planted widely enough to allow intercropping of traditional crops such as cabbages, tomatoes, melons, alfalfa, etc. between the trees.

FINANCING

This project is financed by the AESA, and locally managed by the Institute of Botany of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. AESA has funded the planting and the maintenance expenses for all the test plantations, as well as the purchase of a tractor, a mower, and two submerged irrigation pumps. The Lincy Foundation has been one of the major contributors to this project. In addition, ACDI/VOCA has financed 15 travel expenses to Armenia by the U.S. specialists.

CRDF has also given a grant for analyzing the heat content of the different hybrid poplar clones. USDA office in Lancing, Michigan, has provided technical support for this project and several thousand cuttings. University of Washington and Washington State University have also provided staff that has traveled to Armenia to provide assistance for this project. Oakridge National Laboratories has supported this project by sending one of their experts to Armenia to evaluate biomass potential in Armenia.

IMPROVING SOIL SALINITY

Another objective of the Fast Growing Tree Project is to determine the feasibility of large scale, short rotation plantations in parts of the Ararat Valley which have saline soil. Several types of poplar trees have shown encouraging growth rates in the saline soil, which presently is not used for agricultural purposes. These salt tolerant hybrid poplar plantations in conjunction with special halophytes could lower salinity after several years by lowering the underground water table. Besides hybrid poplars, various salt tolerant plants (halophytes) have also been introduced to Armenia as part of this project. It is estimated that more than 30,000 hectares of land in the Ararat Valley could be used for commercial crops if salinity of soil were reduced.

THE PROBLEM

Parts of the plantations in Armavir that were developed with a large investment from the US private and governmental sources are now in jeopardy due to the corruption in high levels of the Armenian government. Land where these plantations are established belonged to Armenian Forest Service (Hay Andar). In December of 2004 Armenian Forest Service dissolved their organization in Armavir region because there were no forests at that region. They had land that was leased to the farmers, a small apricot plantation, and 52 hectares where the fast growing hybrid poplars were planted.

When the government decided to dissolve the Armavir region of Forest Service, all the land excluding the 52 hectares were given to the governor’s office for distribution. Government’s decree 128 dated December 8, 2004 clearly indicates that the ownership of 52 hectares where the fast growing trees are planted plus 3000 square meters of land where the water well is should be given to the Armenian Institute of Botany to continue the experiment of the fast growing hybrid poplars.

In early 2005, the governor of Armavir region appealed this decision and claimed that this land should also be divided and sold to the local farmers. Attempts were made to meet with the governor but he was not willing to meet with the plantation project team members. AESA, Armenian Forest Service, Ministry of Agricultural, Ministry of the Environmental Protection, and National Academy of Sciences protested against the governor’s request about destroying the plantation and selling the land. They had written letters to the Prime Minister requesting that the governor’s appeal to be denied and land ownership to be given to the Institute of Botany.

After consideration of all the facts, the Armenian Government denied the governor’s request and confirmed its previous decision of transferring the land to the Institute of Botany.

After government’s confirmation of the land ownership, governor’s office and the county recorder started to put different types of hurdles about transferring the ownership of the land to the Institute of Botany. First they were claiming that boundaries were not clear and a new survey was needed. The Institute of Botany hired land surveyors to draw the requested map. Then, there were some requests of payment of $300 for expediting the transfer of ownership that was denied by the Institute of Botany. Finally it became apparent that all of these were smoke screens to sell big chunks of land released by the Forest Service to some governmental officials.

Approximately 80 hectares of land has been sold to the minister of finance at a ridiculously low price. However, the land deed was issued under his mother-in-law’s name. A few months later, the land was sold to a friend of the minister who lives in the City of Echmiatzin, for $40,000. This means that the sale price of one hectare was approximately $500 when the market price of this land is $1,500 per hectare. Most probably he will turn around and sell the land in open market and make a large profit. So much for the governor’s claim that the land should not be given to the Institute of Botany but to the farmers who need the land for their livelihood.

Approximately 9 hectares bearing the best trees in the fast growing tree plantation and the nursery where Institute of Botany had planted all 59 types of hybrid poplars for the future reproduction were part of these 80 hectares that was sold to the Minister of Finance. When the issue of this sale, which is in direct contradiction with the government’s decision, was presented to the governor’s office, their response was that “This is a fact now and if you do not like it, then you can start legal proceedings against this issue”. Another 3 hectares of the plantation with large nice trees were sold (or should be said “given away”) to the mayor of the City of Armavir as part of another large parcel. These 3 hectares are also part of the 52 hectares that should have been given to Institute of Botany.

This picture makes it obvious why people want this land. They can cut these large trees and sell them by ignoring all the efforts that have been made for this experimental project. Destruction of the nursery where all 59 imported clones of the hybrid fast growing trees are planted will especially be a major loss. This nursery should be used to supply needs for establishing fast growing tree plantations at different parts of Armenia. Cutting for these 59 types were sent to Armenia via airlift from the US and Canada with major difficulties and expenses.

This is a clear indication of the level of corruption at the high levels of the Armenian government where some officials take the ownership of the land virtually for free, and then turn around and sell it to their friends for a large profit, but still under the market price. Then the farmers have to buy the land at the market price. This happens despite the clear government decision that part of the land should be given to the Institute of Botany to continue the experimental fast growing tree project and the remainder should be transferred to the farmers.

However, some government officials see an opportunity to make large sums of money and help their friends make money at the expense of the farmers.

At the beginning of the fast growing tree project, it was decided to lease 5 hectares of the land to a farmer for planting cabbage and alfalfa within tree rows. The idea was to evaluate viability and profitability of the concept of agro-forestry. Because these trees were under private care, they are considered to be best-maintained trees. Unfortunately these 5 hectares have been divided between the land parcels that are given to the minister of finance and the mayor of City of Armavir. According to the information received, they are planning to cut and sell these trees.

The farmer who was leasing the land claims that, he has the first right to purchase this land if it is sold, but that he was fine if the land was given to the Institute of Botany. He filed a claim first with the local court and then with the appeals court, but both times the court decisions were against him even though he was defending his right under the law. According to reliable sources, the judges of both courts were bribed.

This clear violation of the government’s formal decision, and the evidence for obvious corruption, was reported by letters to the office of the speaker of the Parliament, Mr. Tigran Torossyan; Land Governing Minister, Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan; and Foreign Minister, Mr. Vardan Oskanyan. The US Embassy and the Millennium Challenge Corporation representatives in Yerevan were also notified about this situation. Since protection of the trees are under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Environmental Protection, they were also notified and warned about the plans to cut trees on the land that is illegally occupied by some government officials.

It should also be mentioned that the governor’s office has offered to give the Institute of Botany some land nearby, instead of the illegally taken parts of the plantations. However, the land that was offered is useless without any trees. Their claim was “If you want 52 hectares of land, we will give you land but from useless areas”. This is another example of the level of arrogance in governmental agencies and their attempt to cover-up their illegal acts.

SUMMARY

The situation facing the Fast Growing Tree project could be applicable to any other major project initiated and supported by the Armenian Diaspora or the US Government. Typically there is not much of help or assistance from governmental agencies at the beginning of any project, but once some government officials see that there is a successful project, they abuse their power to take over such project for their own personal benefit.

During the Third Armenia-Diaspora Conference, Armenia’s Foreign Minister was asking Diaspora to spend millions of dollars to renovate 50 villages near the boarders of Armenia. This request begs the question of who will be benefiting from such a large investment — villagers or some government officials. There was a governmental decision to distribute land belonging to the Armavir division of the Armenia’s Forest Service to local farmers. Instead of the farmers;

however, the mayor and the minister received big portions of land at the original cheap price and then local farmers had to go to them to purchase the land at the market value. Would this also be the fate of the developments in those 50 villages?

The US government is planning to give Armenia $236 million grant under the Millennium Challenge initiative. Basic requirements of this large grant are governmental transparency and the elimination of corruption. Grabbing land by governmental officials near the irrigation canal that will be renovated as part of the Millennium Challenge grant should be of concern to the Millennium Challenge Corporation. The US taxpayers’ money is given to Armenia to help the general population and not some governmental officials.

Armenia has enormous potential for advancement, but corruption could seriously hinder such advancement and progress. This is of concern to the Armenian Diaspora, which needs to pull all of its resources to put pressure on the Armenian Government to eliminate corruption by actions, not just by words, and to put the country on the right track toward a prosperous future for ALL the Armenians.

Meanwhile, RFE/RL has a related story on illegal logging in Armenia. It also quotes the Armenian Forests NGO as raising concerns regarding less and less import of wood into the country. This is especially important given Jeffrey Tufenkian’s role in the organization and the fact that it makes such concerns more credible in the Diaspora.

The organization suggests exempting timber imports from all taxes and dues to encourage timber importers and impose high payment rates for exporters. They suggest the same in retail of wooden products like furniture by imposing excises or lowering taxes for non-wooden furniture.

Vartanian says imports of timber and wood as construction materials have drastically reduced in recent years. She says that Armenia that used only imported materials for wooden production in Soviet times now is exporting its timber in great amounts.

HayAntar Company Director General Martun Matevosian agrees that it would be logical to lower additional costs connected with timber import in a country where wood is in short supply.

He expects the scale of illegal logging to increase on the threshold of winter and calls it a natural phenomenon.

“Illegal loggings are typical of countries with poor social conditions and shortage of energy resources,” Matevosian explained.

According to HayAntar, 819 cubic meters of trees have been illegally cut in the ten months of this year. Matevosian says the scale of logging decreased in recent years and cites figures for 2003 during which 16,000 cubic meters were cut illegally.

Vartanian says this official statistics is in stark contrast with figures cited by international experts. Vartanian quotes international studies suggesting that 800,000 cubic meters of trees were felled in Armenia in 2003.

Incidently, I recently did some photographic work for the Tufenkian Foundation which included a visit to some of Armenian Forests projects in Armenia here, here and here. Before then I also covered tree planting in Ijevan and Gosh for Hetq Online. There’s also an article I wrote on one of the rare triumphs for environmentalists in Armenia and the Diaspora over Shikahogh. Here’s hoping there will be more in the future.

An interview with Sona Ayvazyan, Executive Director and Environmental Policy Expert of the Center for Regional Development / Transparency International in Armenia, on corruption in this sphere is available here.