In Armenia, 30% of the population still lives below the poverty line. Reforestation projects fight desertification, combat soil erosion, preserve the water and empower the local communities, creating jobs and increasing their income.

Reforestation
Once a country covered with thick forests, Armenia’s forest coverage has diminished over the centuries because of poor landscape management, dominance of agriculture, but also because of illegal wood logging due to the energy crisis in the 1990s, during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war. Now only 11% of the country is covered with forests, 80% of which is considered to be under threat of desertification or already desertic to some degree.

The country is also facing the negative impact of global warming: in the last 90 years, the average yearly temperature has raised by 1.23°C, resulting in desertification and deforestation of large areas of land. In only 50 years, the volume of precipitations has gone down by 10% and drought is now possible, even in historically very humid areas.

With its partner, My Forest Armenia, Go Forest wants to recover damaged forest ecosystems by implementing different strategies. These include: planting native tree species, sowing seeds in forest restoration areas, coppicing, as well as promoting natural regeneration processes.

The Nursery
My Forest Armenia’s Debet nursery is located on the grounds of the COAF SMART Center and covers about 1.5 ha area. Altitude is 1000 m. Climate and soil conditions will allow us to grow 17 tree and 10 shrub species. With the tree and shrub seedlings grown here we are going to address forest restoration projects mostly in Lori, on areas located up to 1400 m. The forest nursery plot is not far from Vanadzor-Alaverdi main road. Currently, 7 people from Debet work in the Debet nursery.

For more information about My Forest Armenia, visit https://myforestarmenia.org/ !