On May 22, the Ministry of Environment celebrated the Biodiversity Day with a kind of procession, during which Minister Hakob Simidyan and Deputy Minister Aram Meymaryan, representatives of the Ministry's professional units, the Sevan National Park, the Forestry Committee, the Armles NGO, public organizations of the State Museum of Nature of Armenia and journalists held a march on the territory of the Artanish Nature Reserve in the National Park "Sevan" on a special route, which will be developed and presented to the public as an ecotourism route in the future.
The International Day of Biodiversity was established by the United Nations to draw attention to the unique wealth of living organisms and the importance of their conservation for future generations:
The International Day of Biodiversity pursues a number of important goals, such as raising public awareness about the conservation of biodiversity and its threats, as well as the adoption of innovative solutions that mitigate the risk of loss.
The participants of the march got acquainted with the unique biodiversity and natural landscape of the territory of the Artanish Nature Reserve, considered the possibilities of a further route. The purpose of the reserve is to ensure the preservation of various relict vegetation before the ice age of the Artanish peninsula, rare earth trees and juniper steppes, as well as the migration corridor of rare animals (brown bear, roe deer, wild boar, bezoar goat, red deer, etc.
Congratulating his colleagues on the professional day, Minister Hakob Simidyan compared the preservation of the integrity of biodiversity with the preservation of human health.
"This is one of those days when we need to reconsider our attitude to nature and biodiversity once again. Protecting biodiversity should not be seen as an unnecessary obstacle to economic development. This is one of the most important prerequisites for the sustainable development of our societies and future generations," the Minister said.