interview with jeffrey tufenkian

An Interview with Jeffrey Tufenkian

`For Current and Future Generations'

An Interview with Jeffrey Tufenkian

By Khatchig Mouradian

The Armenian Weekly

March 10, 2007

Jeffrey Tufenkian is co-founder and president of Armenian Forests NGO

(www.ArmenianForests.am), which focuses on restoring and protecting

Armenia's forests for the current and future generations. According to

the website, "Armenian Forests NGO is the outgrowth of his concern and

determination to do what is needed to protect and restore Armenia's

threatened forests while helping to create jobs and build the

economy."

Tufenkian is also co-founder of the Kanach Foundation, publisher of

the book Adventure Armenia: Hiking and Rock Climbing (www.kanach.org).

In this interview, conducted on March 7, Tufenkian talks about the

challenges facing the environment in Armenia today, be they

deforestation, illegal logging or the absence of sufficient support

for environmental NGOs.

Armenian Weekly--How is the Armenian government dealing with the

problem of deforestation? Does it provide support to NGO's like

Armenian Forests NGO?

Jeffrey Tufenkian--The government voices concern about the

deforestation problems and pledges to plant millions of trees and

thousands of hectares of forests, but very little actually happens.

Unfortunately given the current situation of powerful people involved

in the cutting, there is not the political will to really stop

deforestation from the highest levels of government. Having said that,

we have decent relationships with the key ministries and there has

been some progress. In recent years, there has been a small amount of

money from the state budget put into reforestation and some reduction

of cutting, but much more needs to be done.

A.W.--Talk about the problem of illegal logging.

J.T.--Of much greater importance than reforestation--as critical and

difficult as that is--is stopping the mass deforestation. Armenia's

forests are being systematically destroyed; unless drastic

improvements are made soon, Armenia's forests won't have a future. And

with the loss of the forests comes the downfall of the fragile

ecosystem of which it is the cornerstone--loss of springs, streams and

rivers, loss of habitat for endangered animals, loss of biodiversity,

increasingly severe weather, landslides, erosion and desertification.

Once covering 35 percent of Armenia's current territory, forest

coverage is at a historical low, covering only 7-8 percent. It has

already lost many springs and even rivers due to deforestation, and

according to the government, over 80 percent of the land is under some

level of desertification.

Despite this bleak and worsening situation, oligarchs and other

powerful people in Armenia cut trees not only to sell in Yerevan and

elsewhere as fuel and other internal uses (construction, furniture,

etc.), but actually export wood to countries including Spain, Italy,

Iran and even Turkey. This is an outrage that should not be tolerated.

In fact, there is still no process for legal productive cutting of

forest trees in Armenia. Trees being cut now are done by permission as

"sanitary" or other cutting aimed at protecting the health of the

forests. Under the guise of this, they are taking many times more

trees and healthy ones rather than getting the sick trees out of the

forests. Almost by definition, any valuable wood cut in Armenia is

illegal.

Export of wood from Armenia is something that would have been

unthinkable in Soviet times. In the last half of the Soviet period,

there was mass reforestation (up to 7,000 hectares per year) and

proper care of the forests as they imported wood for domestic use and

would never have cut for export. The limited forest territory Armenia

had was recognized as critically important and therefore given a

"protected" status.

Although Armenia needs to import wood and does not have supplies

internally to justify export, there are both customs fees and taxes to

import wood, but to export it there are neither. Armenia should

immediately stop exporting wood and change the laws to provide

incentives for import of wood such as at least eliminating the fees

and taxes charged to bring it in.

A.W.--How does Armenian Forests NGO coordinate with other

environmental NGOs. Is duplication a problem?

J.T.--I must say that one of our priority approaches--one we put a lot

of time and effort into--is cooperating with and forming coalitions

with others including local NGOs--and it has been paying off. When we

arrived on the scene in 2002, it was difficult to get more than two

NGOs in a room at the same time and have constructive results working

together, but there has been a real shift, and I think that the

environmental sector is now a place where such cooperation among NGOs

is really working and bringing good results. It is not surprising that

in this individual-oriented society where everyone has his own

organization rather than join someone else's and there is fierce

competition for limited funding, NGOs would be suspicious and fearful

about cooperating. In this context, our first attempts at establishing

a coalition was nearly a complete failure. But we and others kept at

it and things really shifted in 2005 when the local WWF organization

sounded the alarm about Shikahogh. We jumped in with about 40 local

organizations to help lead a successful campaign to stop the

government's decision to put a major highway through the flagship

nature reserve called Shikahogh--the last unspoiled forest of Armenia.

This was not only a great win for the environment of Armenia, but an

unprecedented win for civil society as these groups really set aside

their individual egos and cooperated in an excellent way to bring this

success.

We have been monitoring another situation and just this month publicly

launched a new campaign--with many of the same NGOs from Shikahogh--to

attempt to get a proposed mining operation at Teghut near Aleverdi in

Lori Marz to stop until it complies with national laws and

international conventions, and does not pose an undue danger to the

environment and people. The current exploration violates 11 national

laws and 7 international conventions; if approved, it would poison the

water basin for this whole area, and destroy over 1,200 hectares

(2,964 acres) of forests and its natural ecosystem as they would

remove an entire small mountain and fill a valley with the unused rock

and soil. Increased pollution from the smelter would further impact

the already toxic zone of Aleverdi where birth defects and respiratory

diseases are rampant.

A.W.--The mining issue has attracted a lot of attention in the past

year. Mining also provides a lot of jobs. How are the environment NGOs

planning to deal with that? Are there models providing a better

alternative?

J.T.--Yes, there's been lots of attention on mining in Armenia and

lots of mining activity recently. I personally am still in a learning

curve to get a grasp on the details of this industry and what

alternatives are possible to allow for this industry without poisoning

the water, air and devastating the natural environment for decades to

come. Armenia is a small country with limited, threatened natural

resources. Any major mining operation can potentially have a huge

negative impact on current and future generations.

Armenia clearly needs more jobs and opportunities for income

generation, and of course, the mining interests like other industries

are promising lots of jobs. Unfortunately, as with much hype, the

picture may not be as rosy as they try to paint it. The high paying

jobs will likely be filled by people from Yerevan or from out of the

country, the majority of the jobs will be low-paid, and many of the

local villagers will have to gamble by sacrificing their land--which

now provides consistent income and food--for a chance of a low-paying

job. Unfortunately, even if they get one, it may not make up for the

loss of productive fruit trees and land, and they'll have less money,

polluted water and a devastated environment, as well.

I personally am hoping that a couple of the more responsible

international mining outfits can be models of an environmentally and

socially responsible approach. Unfortunately, the current prevailing

mode here is a "least common denominator" approach of paying off

officials, paying lip service to health and environmental concerns,

grabbing as much as possible and getting out, leaving destruction and

little if any remaining benefit for the country and its people.

A.W.--What do you say to those in the Diaspora who ask: What can I do

to help?

J.T.--There are things Diasporans can do. I believe starting and

investing in businesses--especially those that pay off not only in

profits and improved social wellbeing through more jobs, but have a

positive payoff for the environment--could be the most important and

helpful approach for Armenia now. Armenians are smart and creative,

and they can use their expertise and financial investment to take

advantage of business opportunities. It's also great to donate to a

good organization, and I realize easier for most than starting or

running a business in Armenia. To that end, I can say we are happy to

accept contributions. Armenian Forests NGO is doing outreach in the

U.S. this spring with the other Tufenkian Foundation branches to raise

support for some of our key projects aimed at protecting forests of