The Minister held a working consultation with the head of the branch and the workers at the administrative office of the forestry branch.
The meeting was attended by Vayots Dzor Region Governor Ararat Grigoryan, Acting Chairman of the Committee of Forest of the Ministry of Environment Artur Petrosyan, Acting Director of "ArmForest" SNCO Pavel Tsugunyan, Head of "Vayots Dzor Forestry" branch of "ArmForest" SNCO.
The meeting took a note of the forest sector issues and their conceptual solutions. Forest sector management policy should be comprehensive, provide final solutions to the existing challenges of forest protection, restoration, illegal logging.
The Minister made special reference to the issue of revoking  the decree (2006) of the Government on granting 7 to 8000 hectares of area from "Vayots Dzor Forest Enterprise" to "Animal World" LLC and "Safari International" Armenian-Italian Joint Venture” LLC and returning those areas to public administration.
Earlier,  339.5 hectares of the pastures of "Yeghegis Gorge" reserve fund of Vayots Dzor region were transferred to the category of forest fund lands, the mentioned lands and 20 2060.5 hectares of "Yeghegis gorge" forest fund lands, 495 hectares of Geghi and Darmanadzor areas were separated from Syunik region and granted  to “Safari International Armenian-Italian Joint Venture” LLC with the right of gratuitous (permanent) use.
4118 hectares of Jermuk forestry of Vayots Dzor region and 3620 hectares of Herher forestry of Yeghegis forestry and 5329.91 hectares of lands beyond the administrative borders of the communities of Ararat region of the Republic of Armenia were granted to "Animal World" LLC for 49 years.
On February 11 of this year, the Government included as a non-reportable issue the draft decree on terminating the relevant contract with "Safari International" on the initiative of the Ministry of Environment and revoking the relevant decree of the Government.
By the intervention of the Minister, active steps are being assumed to re-establish forest management and forest protection in those areas.
At the end of the meeting, the specialists presented the current sectorial  problems in the region, raised the need for technical upgrading of the forestries, discussed their possible solutions and further steps.