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UNDP-GEF-SPA Armenia Forest Adaptation
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The land-locked country Armenia is located in the southern end of the Caucasus, on the rugged slopes of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. The country harbours exceptionally high levels of biodiversity especially within the temperate region. The forest ecosystems of Armenia have rightly been identified as a global conservation priority. Selected decentralized adaptation measures are implemented on the ground by the UNDP/GEF/SPA project “Adaptation to climate change impacts in mountain forest ecosystems of Armenia” together with its national partners to enhance the resilience of the mountain forests to climate change and to improve the adaptive capacity of natural resource managers.
Adaptation measures piloted by the project on three forest rehabilitation and reforestation sites are aiming to enhance the inherent adaptive capacity of the target forests and also to identify feasible forest regeneration strategies, silvicultural operations and maintenance activities that improve the success of reforestation under climate change.
An important target of the project is to improve wildfire management in Armenia. The project has teamed up with other organizations and initiatives to efficiently promote shared objectives in reducing the occurrence and impacts of fires. The project has improved the capacities of foresters to respond to wildfires by donating forest fire early response equipment to two forest enterprises and one national park in South-Eastern Armenia. Forest fire monitoring capacities are also enhanced as forest rangers can roam the difficult to reach forest areas on horseback with horses donated by the project. The project also supported the process of revising legislation concerning stubble field and pastureland burning in forest adjacent areas, one of the major causes of wildfires worldwide. Successfully this ban came into force recently in Armenia. In order to reduce the impacts of pests, a feasible methodology for forest pest monitoring has been developed under the project in co-operation with the scientific community.
Based on the experience gathered under the different components of the project and a targeted analysis of current management practices, climate change considerations and adaptation options will be mainstreamed into local forest and protected areas management plans.
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