Biodiversity

Please provide the following details on the origin of this report

Contracting Party	Republic of Armenia
National Focal Point
Full name of the institution:	Ministry of Nature Protection
Name and title of contact officer:	*Sergey Shashikyan,* Head of the Division of Flora and Fauna Conservation, CBD Focal Point
Mailing address:	35 Moskovyan St. Yerevan, 375002, Armenia
Telephone:	(374-1) 53-18-41 (374-1) 53-48-92
Fax:	(374-1) 53-48-92
E-mail:	*biodiv@pisem.net* *Sergeynp@freenet.am*
Contact officer for national report (if different)
Full name of the institution:
Name and title of contact officer:
Mailing address:
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail:
Submission
Signature of officer responsible for submitting national report:
Date of submission:	May 14, 2001

Please provide summary information on the process by which this report has been prepared, including information on the types of stakeholders who have been actively involved in its preparation and on material which was used as a basis for the report

A list of seven National Experts, all of whom had contributed significantly to the first National Report, was drawn up by the National Focal Point, Sergey Shashikyan, who is also working as the project coordinator. These experts consulted with various governmental and non-governmental organisations, departments and research institutes, in coordination with the National Focal Point. The information collected was then entered into the guideline reporting format supplied by the Secretariat of the CBD, with the assistance of staff from the Department of Flora and Fauna Conservation and Protected Areas. This draft report was written in English.

The seven National Experts involved were;

Georgi Fayvush - In situ / Ex-situ conservation
Zhirayr Vardanyan - Flora
Mark Kalashyan - Fauna
Bardukh Gabrielyan - Water biodiversity
Alvina Avagyan - Genetic Resources
Volodya Zoranyan - Agrobiodiversity
Yekaterina Aleksanyan - Education / Awareness Raising, Public Participation / Environmental Impact Assessment

The institutes and organisations that provided information for the report were;

Institute of Biotechnology
Institute of Botany
Institute of Microbiology
Institute of Water Ecology and Fisheries
Institute of Zoology
Scientific Centre for Soil, Agriculture and Plant Protection
Scientific Centre for Vegetables and Orchards
Forest Scientific Centre
Armenian Agricultural Academy
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministry of Nature Protection (almost all departments consulted)
Department of Ecological Expertise
Yerevan State University
Byurakn - NGO
Ecological Survival - NGO

The staff of the Department of Flora and Fauna Conservation and Protected Areas that participated in drawing up the Second National Report were:

Tatyana Danielyan
Siranush Muradyan
Karen Jenderedjian
Aram Aghasyan

The draft report was then reviewed by international consultants from the UK organisation Fauna and Flora International who edited the report, identified gaps in the information in the draft, and then conducted interviews with the appropriate stakeholders in order to gather the information necessary to fill these gaps. FFI Consultants involved were;

Alistair Taylor (UNEP-WCMC)
Chris Magin (FFI)

At the suggestion of the National Focal Point a half-day seminar was organised prior to submitting the report in order to present the process and results of the Second National Report to around 20 stakeholders including representatives from government, scientific and academic institutions and NGOs. Following a brief introduction by the National Focal Point, each of the seven experts gave a short presentation on their role in the process and what they saw as high priority needs or activities for Armenia in their particular area. Feedback was sought from the stakeholders present and this was incorporated into the report under the section, "Further comments on work programmes and priorities".

The report was then finally reviewed by the National Focal Point and submitted to the CBD Secretariat.

Please provide information on any particular circumstances in your country that are relevant to understanding the answers to the questions in this report

The Republic of Armenia suffered severe economic hardships at the beginning of the 1990s, when it became involved in a political dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan. One consequence of this was a transport blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey, causing a severe energy crisis that led to widespread deforestation near urban centres as people cut trees for fuel wood. Economic recovery has now begun, aided by a reasonably low level of international debt. The financing of biodiversity conservation programmes is supported by a number of mechanisms, including the State budget and foreign contributions to projects. While environmental problems are recognised, the environment is not considered a high national priority for public expenditure.

Furthermore Armenia has a shortage of training for biodiversity conservation specialists in several areas.
There is a shortage of protected area management specialists and currently no training available for such specialists. Armenian specialists were trained in Soviet methods of management and need instruction in recent developments in this area in order to fulfil international obligations.

There is also a need for specialists in the economic aspects of protected areas management and data management. Specialists in monitoring activities are also needed, both field specialists and those trained in the organisation of monitoring activities and in information management.

Armenia also lacks information and expertise in the key area of alien invasive species. More clarification is needed of potential risks and management strategies for dealing with such risks in this area.

Information and assistance is also sought in the area of inter-sectoral relationships in biodiversity conservation, since many institutional changes have been made since the end of the Soviet era.