The Queen, Armenia’s Forests and Bureaucratic Hurdles

2026-01-25 - 21:06

Listen to the AI generated audio article. Your browser does not support the audio element. It’s not every day that royalty visits Armenia. In mid-October, Belgian Queen Mathilde, a UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, paid an official visit that coincided with a moment of growing attention to environmental issues. As Yerevan prepares to host the COP17 biodiversity summit in fall 2026, that spotlight has only sharpened focus on Armenia’s unresolved environmental challenges. While the country is expected to make new pledges next year, it still struggles with a long list of unfulfilled environmental obligations. Bureaucratic hurdles, legislative gaps and competing interests often hamper progress, particularly in forest restoration and replanting. Forests were also a focal point of the Belgian Queen’s visit. Beyond highlighting Armenia’s SDG efforts, she planted a seedling at a site slated to become the Belgian-Armenian Forest, funded by the Belgian-Armenian community, which will hopefully grow into a forest within the next decade. A handful of reporters were invited to cover her visit to a new forest-planting site in Armenia’s Gegharkunik region, organized by MyForest Armenia, one of the few NGOs in the country dedicated to reforestation. Since 2020, the organization has planted over 800 hectares of forest across different regions of Armenia. We set off from Yerevan to Gegharkunik early in the morning. During the 1.5-hour ride, the main topic was the environment and forests. A representative of the NGO told us about their work: how they gather seeds from forests and grow them into trees, and how they involve local communities to create jobs and build a sense of ownership so residents are less likely to cut down the forest later. Beyond deforestation and slow progress in reforestation and afforestation (tree-planting on previously non-forested land), Armenia also faces a persistent problem of illegal forest cutting. We were driving through one of the country’s harshest, most exposed regions, where the hills lie bare for miles. The irony wasn’t lost on me as we passed the stretch of the Yerevan–Sevan highway I find most unsettling—the section where hills have been carved up for mining ore. When we arrived at the planting site, a few kilometers from the village of Tsaghkunk, the landscape was nothing but bare hills with patches of brown grass and scattered shrubs. It was hard to imagine that in a decade, these hills could be covered by forest. We could see only a small part of the 29.4-hectare area designated for planting. Workers—men and women from different parts of Armenia—had begun digging holes and placing seedlings into the soil, partly in preparation for the Belgian royal visit. About 3,000 trees are planted per hectare. Only 65% to 75% of the seedlings are expected to survive and grow into mature trees; the seedlings that don’t survive are replaced with new ones. The team uses a mixed-planting method to mimic natural forests, focusing mostly on wild fruit species common in Armenia’s woodlands. Young forests require constant care and protection from grazing cows and sheep. That’s why the entire area is fenced. While the organization tries to employ locals whenever possible, they struggle to hire a local workforce in Gegharkunik. Workers have to travel over an hour from Lori regularly to tend the forest. Many men here are migrant workers in Russia, spending only a few months each year with their families in their villages. The region is also quite conservative, and women likely refrain from seeking formal employment—they’re responsible for managing their homes and farms while the men are away. However, planting a forest is only one part of the challenge. One might assume that obtaining permits for afforestation would be straightforward in a country that has suffered significant deforestation. But as Andre Gumuchdjian, the founder of MyForest Armenia, explains, the reality is far more complicated. “We have some support from the government, but no financial support,” he said. “The problem is mainly solving all the regulatory issues—permits and so on.” According to Gumuchdjian, forests can only be planted on community-owned land, and the community must agree to allocate the territory—something that isn’t always straightforward. “We wanted to plant on state lands, but when we asked for permission, they said we couldn’t because these are ‘special lands’ in the cadaster. By law, they cannot give it to us since we would be doing something else with it—planting a forest, not a pasture.” The process grows more complicated when mining companies show interest in the same land. MyForest, for example, couldn’t obtain a permit to plant trees near Spitak due to possible mining interests. “There is also competition with mining companies that want to explore the land for gold exploitation,” Andre added. “The gold is on the ground, not in the ground. Our forests—that is the gold.” For now, there is no clear solution. “Maybe first change the cadaster status and then plant, but this is also difficult. There are a lot of administrative problems,” he said. The Forest Alliance of Armenia is working to amend the regulations and make the process easier, but, as Andre noted, “Everything moves forward very slowly. I hope the state will listen.” This highlights a central dilemma Armenia faces. On one hand, the country urgently needs forest cover given the growing impacts of climate change and the lasting consequences of deforestation in the 1990s. On the other hand, for a small, landlocked country that continues to face security challenges, mining remains an important sector—and for reasons ranging from national security to much-needed revenue, it is likely to remain so. Gumuchdjian’s motivation stems from a desire to reduce his own environmental footprint and address the global crisis: “We all destroy the planet. We are emitting CO2—less in Armenia, more in Europe—but climate change will affect the younger generation. It is an ethical question. I have to at least compensate for the degradation I caused by planting trees.” For Armenia, forests are also vital for water security. “Seventy-five percent of the world’s drinking water comes from forests,” he explains. “This is a security issue. Our neighbors are not going to give us water. That is the motivation.” Andre also hopes the Queen’s visit will raise awareness and encourage more people to join the project. Forest Goals Off Track While the Armenian government has set ambitious reforestation goals, it appears to be in no hurry to fulfill them. Officially, Armenia’s forest cover stands at 11.2%, but the real figure is closer to between 7-9%. Under the Paris Agreement and its 2021–2030 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the country has committed to increasing forest cover to 13% by planting 50,000 hectares by 2030. This mid-term target supports a broader long-term pledge under the Bonn Challenge: doubling Armenia’s forest cover to 20.1% by 2050. Reaching that goal will require afforesting an additional 265,000 hectares, bringing the country’s total forested area to roughly 600,000 hectares. Given these commitments, one would expect Armenian authorities to show greater interest in NGO-led reforestation initiatives. With only five years left to meet the deadline for planting 50,000 hectares of forests, Armenia is falling behind, and the trees planted through government initiatives are in dire condition. In a recent investigation, Hetq reported that the promised volumes of reforestation and tree-planting have not been achieved. Only about 1,000 hectares of forest plantations have been established in Armenia’s forested areas. Forestry expert Aiser Ghazaryan told Hetq that forest plantations are officially considered forests only when the crowns of the saplings join to form a closed canopy. Under Armenia’s reforestation and afforestation regulations, such canopy closure is estimated to occur 7–12 years after planting for both coniferous and broadleaf species. This means that even if 49,000 hectares are planted in the fall of 2025, by 2030, those areas would still be only five years old and ineligible to be classified as forest, even under ideal survival and growth conditions. Earlier in the year, former Environment Minister Hakob Simidyan explained that the government intended to increase afforestation in 2024 but was unable to because of financial issues. He stated that the goal for 2024 was to plant 1,000 hectares of forest, but only 334 hectares were planted. In 2023, 314 hectares were planted. For 2025, the state plans to establish just 200 hectares of forest. Hetq has visited several of the areas where forests have been planted and found a pattern of systemic failures in state-funded and donor-supported afforestation projects—failures that cast serious doubt on the country’s ability to meet its reforestation goals. In a forest planting site near the village of Metsavan in Lori region, a 30-hectare plot planted with 90,000 seedlings in 2020 has been reclaimed by livestock. The area, once fenced with barbed wire, has turned into open pastureland. With the fencing collapsed and unrepaired, herds move freely across the site, grazing on the surrounding vegetation and the seedlings themselves. Five years later, the land bears no resemblance to a future forest. Just a short distance away, another Metsavan site reveals a similar pattern of mismanagement. In 2022, authorities reported that more than 60 hectares were planted under a state-funded program and a compensation agreement with Myler Mountain Resorts, whose construction had required clearing part of the nearby woodland. Although the area remains fenced, two sections are swampy, making seedline survival unlikely. Satellite analysis shows that the reported planting area is overstated: the actual total does not exceed 50 hectares, including the swamp patches. The same problems appear in Syunik region, where authorities announced a 10-hectare afforestation site near Karahunj in 2020. They added more seedlings in 2021. Yet five years later, the site shows no sign of a developing forest. Nearly all seedlings have died, leaving only one or two struggling plants. Failures extend to Aragatsotn as well. In the Byurakan forestry unit, one hectare planted in 2021 with financing from ArmSwissBank now stands neglected. Fencing has collapsed, and there is no evidence of weed control or routine care. A further two hectares were planted in 2022 with state funds. Here too, the results are bleak. No forest layer ever formed. Seedlings were neither irrigated nor maintained, and parts of the fence collapsed again. These examples reveal a deeper structural problem: planting events are prioritized, but long-term stewardship is not. Sites are selected without proper ecological assessment. Maintenance is sporadic or entirely absent. Fencing collapses without repair, and livestock movement remains unchecked. 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