The Armenian Ministry of Environment, along with the two NOCs operating under it, could not manage four greenhouses built in the country with international grants. Two of them were destroyed and subsequently restored, while the other two were destroyed twice and have not yet been restored. It is unclear who is responsible for their restoration, Hetq investigative media outlet reports.
The ministry attributes the destruction to unfavorable weather conditions, while the company that built the greenhouses blames forestry practices. Armenia, which is highly vulnerable to climate change, has undertaken efforts to expand forested areas and reduce carbon emissions. As part of these efforts, the Armenian government is implementing several programs financed by international donors.
The project 'Forest Resilience of Armenia, Enhancing Adaptation and Rural Green Growth via Mitigation' is implemented with funds from the Green Climate Fund of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Government of Armenia, the Austrian Development Agency, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, the Armenian Office of the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also participate in its implementation. The total budget for the eight-year project is 18.7 million US dollars. According to information provided by the Ministry of Environment, the Green Climate Fund allocated 2,194,080,000 drams (around 5.5 million dollars) for the project. The state institution "Environmental Project Implementation Office" of the Ministry of Environment is responsible for its implementation.
The project aims to reduce fuelwood demand and introduce bio-sustainable and climate-adapted forest management skills, expand forest areas by 2.5 percent, reduce the fuelwood demand of rural communities by at least 30 percent, promote sustainable and climate-adapted forest management, and ensure technology transfer to rural communities, the private sector, and government agencies in the context of a forest-energy interconnected approach.
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