Acopian Center for the Environment Welcomes Danish Project Consultants

MoU Signing at AUA Results in Establishment of Environmental Education Network

Interview: Crowdfunding to Protect Mining Communities from Toxic Pollution

Yerevan Municipality Invites AUA Acopian Center for the Environment to Deliver Extracurricular Environmental Education Program to Yerevan Public Schools

Aquaponics in Armenia

Aquaponics in Armenia

Announcement-Carineh Ghafafian

Abundance of Narrow-Clawed Crayfish and Its Population Trends in Lake Sevan, Armenia

Abundance of Narrow-Clawed Crayfish and Its Population Trends in Lake Sevan, Armenia

Web-Crayfish

Emerging Trends in Transportation Engineering (and Cycling in Yerevan)

Emerging Trends in Transportation Engineering (and Cycling in Yerevan)

Capture

Green Urbanism and Architecture Lecture to Young Architects and Planners

AUA Acopian Center director, Alen Amirkhanian, made a presentation on green urbanism to a group of young architects and planners as part of “Talking Places – Re-Imagining Public Space in Yerevan,” a 2-day workshop organized by the Luys Foundation and its fellows Vahe Markosian, Raffy Mardirossian, and Paul Matevosyan.

 

Cover Photounnamed (1) unnamed (2) unnamed (3) unnamed (4) unnamed (5) unnamed (6) unnamed (7) unnamed (8) unnamed (9) unnamed (10)

AUA Acopian Center for the Environment Reintroduces Brown Trout in Tavush Marz River

The Number and Trends of Breeding Carrion Crows in Yerevan

The Number and Trends of Breeding Carrion Crows in Yerevan

Carrion Crows

Alternative Solutions to Wastewater Management in the Wider Black Sea Region, July 2, 2014 Daylong Seminar at AUA

 

 

Alternative Solutions to Wastewater Management in the Wider Black Sea Region

wastenet for web

 

Agenda

Օրակարգ

 

Workshop Agenda

WASTEnet: A BLACK SEA NETWORK PROMOTING THE INTEGRATED NATURAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

July 2, 2014

Venue: Manoogian Hall, American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia 

Time

 

10:30 – 11:00

Registration

11:00 – 11:10

Welcome Remarks, Alen AMIRKHANIAN, AUA Acopian Center for the Environment, Armenia

Opening remarks, Menelaos CHATZIAPOSTOLIDIS, DEYAK

Opening Remarks, John BARKER, EU Delegation in Armenia

11:10 – 11:30

Overview of Black Sea Cross Border Cooperation Projects in Armenia, Amalia HOVSEPYAN, Ministry of Economy of Armenia

11:30 – 11:50

The WASTEnet Project and its Contribution to the Black Sea Regional Development, Prof. Georgios SYLAIOS, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

11:50 – 12:10

Current Status of Wastewater Treatment in Armenia, Representative of the Ministry of Nature Protection of Armenia (TBD)

12:10 – 12:30

Local Solutions to Wastewater Problems — Hovhannes GHAZARYAN, UNDP Armenia

12:30 – 13:30

Lunch

13:30 – 13:50

Current Status of Natural Treatment Systems and Potentials in their Implementation in Armenia – Parakar case — Arevik HOVSEPYAN, Global Water Partnership, Armenia, Samvel VARDANYAN, Parakar village mayor, Armenia

13:50 – 14:10

The Legislative Framework and Present Status on Wastewater Treatment in the Black Sea Basin — Prof. Ketevan KUPATADZE, Ilia State University, Georgia

14:10 – 14:30

 

Wastewater Treatment through NTS: Minimizing Pollution in an Eco-friendly manner — Prof. Vassilios TSIHRINTZIS, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

14:30 – 14:50

Natural Treatment Systems: Types and Applications of the Constructed Wetlands Technology — Dr Irini KOTTI, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece, Prof. Georgios SYLAIOS, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

14:50 – 15:10

Design parameters and Efficiency of household small-scale plants — Prof. Georgios GIKAS, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

15:10 – 15:30

Natural treatment Systems in Turkey: benefits, costs and operational problems — Prof. Sibel BASAKCILARDAN–KABAKCI, Yalova University, Turkey

15:30 – 15:50

Coffee Break

15:50 – 16:10

Protecting the Natural Wetlands of Danube River Basin — Dr. Jenica HANGANU, Dr. Adrian CONSTANTINESCU, Danube Delta National Institute, Romania

16:10 – 17:10

Discussion on the role of the civil society in the promotion of NTS in the BSB — Olga KOVALIOVA, Eco-TIRAS, Moldova; Alen AMIRKHANIAN, AUA Acopian Center for the Environment, Armenia; Prof. Georgios SYLAIOS, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

17:10 – 17:30

Workshop Summary, Prof. Georgios SYLAIOS, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

 

 

Սեմինարի օրակարգ

Կեղտաջրերի բնական ինտեգրված մաքրման համակարգեր խրախուսող սևծովյան ցանց՝ WASTEnet

2014թ. հուլիսի 2

Անցկացման վայր՝ Մանուգեան դահլիճ, Հայաստանի ամերիկյան համալսարան 

Ժամ

 

10:30 – 11:00

Մասնակիցների գրանցում

11:05 – 11:10

Բացման խոսք, Ալեն Ամիրխանյան, ՀԱՀ Յակոբեան բնապահպանական կենտրոն, Հայաստան

Բացման խոսք, Մենելաոս Խացիապոստոլիդիս, ԴԵՅԱԿ

Բացման խոսք, Ջոն Բարքեր, Հայաստանում ԵՄ պատվիրակություն

11:10 – 11:30

Հայաստանում սևծովյան անդրսահմանային համագործակցության ծրագրերի ակնարկ, Ամալյա Հովսեփյան, ՀՀ էկոնոմիկայի նախարարություն

11:30 – 11:50

WASTEnet ծրագիրը և դրա նպաստը սևծովյան տարածաշրջանային զարգացմանը, պրոֆ. Գեորգիոս Սիլայոս, Թրակիայի Դեմոկրիտեսի համալսարան, Հունաստան

11:50 – 12:10

Կեղտաջրերի մաքրման ներկա մակարդակը Հայաստանում, ՀՀ Բնապահպանության նախարարության ներկայացուցիչ

12:10 – 12:30

Տեղական լուծումներ կեղտաջրերի հետ կապված խնդիրների համար, Հովհաննես Ղազարյան, ՄԱԿ-ի Զարգացման ծրագիր, Հայաստան

12:30 – 13:30

Ճաշ

13:30 – 13:50

Հայաստանում կենսաբանական մաքրման մեթոդների ներկա վիճակը և դրանց իրականացման ներուժը` Փարաքարի օրինակը, Արևիկ Հովսեփյան, Գլոբալ ջրային համագործակցություն, Հայաստան, Սամվել Վարդանյան, Փարաքարի գյուղապետ, Հայաստան

13:50 – 14:10

Կեղտաջրերի մաքրման իրավական շրջանակը և ներկա վիճակը Սև ծովի ավազանում, պրոֆ. Քեթևան Քուփաթաձե, Իլիայի պետական համալսարան, Վրաստան

14:10 – 14:30

 

Կեղտաջրերի մաքրումը ԲՄՀ միջոցով՝ աղտոտման նվազեցում էկոլոգիապես մաքուր մեթոդներով, պրոֆ. Վասսիլիոս Ծիհրինձիս, Թրակիայի Դեմոկրիտեսի համալսարան, Հունաստան

14:30 – 14:50

Բնական մաքրման համակարգեր՝ կենսաբանական լճակների տեխնոլոգիայի տեսակները և կիրառումը, դոկ. Իրինի Կոտտի, Թրակիայի Դեմոկրիտեսի համալսարան, Հունաստան, պրոֆ. Գեորգիոս Սիլայոս, Թրակիայի Դեմոկրիտեսի համալսարան, Հունաստան

14:50 – 15:10

Տնային փոքր կայանների նախագծման պարամետրերը և արդյունավետությունը, պրոֆ. Գեորգիոս Գիկաս, Թրակիայի Դեմոկրիտեսի համալսարան, Հունաստան

15:10 – 15:30

Բնական մաքրման համակարգերը Թուրքիայում՝ օգուտները, ծախսերը և շահագործման խնդիրները, պրոֆ. Սիբել Բասակչիլարդան-Քաբաքչի, Յալովայի համալսարան, Թուրքիա

15:30 – 15:50

Սուրճի ընդմիջում

15:50 – 16:10

Դանուբ գետի ավազանի բնական ճահճուտների պահպանումը, դոկ. Յենիցա Հանգանու, դոկ. Ադրիան Կոնստանտինեսկու, Հետազոտությունների և զարգացման Դանուբ դելտա ազգային ինստիտուտ, Ռումինիա

16:10 – 17:10

ՍԾԱ-ում ԲՄՀ տարածման գործում քաղաքացիական հասարակության դերի քննարկում, Օլգա Կովալյովա, Էկո-ՏԻՐԱՍ գետերի պահապանների միջազգային ասոցիացիա, Մոլդովա, Ալեն Ամիրխանյան, ՀԱՀ Յակոբեան բնապահպանական կենտրոն, պրոֆ. Գեորգիոս Սիլայոս, Թրակիայի Դեմոկրիտեսի համալսարան, Հունաստան

17:10 – 17:30

Սեմինարի ամփոփում, պրոֆ. Գեորգիոս Սիլայոս, Թրակիայի Դեմոկրիտեսի համալսարան, Հունաստան

 

GREEN ARCHITECTURE BOOK COVER COMPETITION

UNDP-GEF “Improving Energy Efficiency in Buildings” project is publishing a textbook for architecture and urban-planning students on environmentally responsible and energy-efficient building design. Young architects and graphic designers are invited to submit designs for the cover of this textbook. The cover includes front cover, cover spine, and back cover.

Download Detailed Instructions here.

International Training Program in Raptor Conservation at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary’s Acopian Center for Conservation Learning

BOOK COVER COMPETITION FOR GREEN ARCHITECTURE TEXTBOOK

UNDP-GEF “Improving Energy Efficiency in Buildings” project is publishing a textbook for architecture and urban-planning students on environmentally responsible and energy-efficient building design.  The lead author of the textbook is Alen Amirkhanian, director of AUA Acopian Center for the Environment.

Young architects and graphic designers are invited to submit designs for the cover of this textbook. The cover includes front cover, cover spine, and back cover.  Download Detailed Instructions here.

 

«Շենքերի էներգետիկ արդյունա­վետու­թյան բարձրացում» ՄԱԶԾ-ԳԷՖ ծրագրի շրջանակներում հրատարակվելու է դասագիրք ճարտարապետության և քաղաքաշինության գծով մասնագիտացող ուսանողների համար՝ շրջակա միջավայրի հետ համահունչ և էներգաարդյունավետյան տեսանկյունից արդյունավետ շինությունների դիզայնի վերաբերյալ:  Գրքի գլխավոր հեղինակը հանդիսանում է ՀԱՀ Յակոբեան բնապահպանական կենտրոնի տնօրեն Ալեն Ամիրխանյանը:

Երիտասարդ ճարտարապետները և գրաֆիկական դիզայներները հրավիրվում են ներկայացնելու իրենց առաջարկները դասագրքի շապիկի ձևավորման վերաբերյալ:  Շապիկը ներառում է առջևի կազմը, ամրացման եղանակը, և հետևի կազմը: Մանրամասն ուղեցույցը ներբեռնելու համար սեղմեք այստեղ:

 

extended

 

 

 

 

 

AUA Cleanup and Tree Planting for Yerevan Community Work Weekend

image001

YEREVAN–AUA students, faculty and staff came together on Sunday, March 24 to clean up the university campus and plant trees as part of an annual community work weekend promoter by the Yerevan mayor’s office. The cleanup at AUA was organized by the AUA Eco Club and theAcopian Center for the Environment. The trees were donated by the Armenia Tree Project.

Participating this year were: AUA President Bruce Boghosian, Vice President of Operations Ashot Ghazaryan, Provost Dennis Leavens, Director of Administration Anahit Ordyan, Director of the AGBU Papazian Library Satenik Avagyan, Director of Admissions Arina Zohrabian, Student Services Coordinator Garine Palandjian, Director of ICTS Berj Gatrjyan, as well as many AUA professors, staff, and students.

Special thanks to AUA MBA student Levon Demirchyan, who provided these photographs.

image003

AUA is an Eco-Friendly Campus

image001

Thanks to a collaboration between the American University of Armenia (AUA) Eco Club, the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment, and the University administration, AUA is happy to announce the installation of the first ever on-campus bicycle racks.

The racks were installed in early May 2013 in response to demands by the university community and to encourage eco-friendly transportation. Deciding on a location and design was a joint effort between students and AUA ACE. Students surveyed the perimeter of the building and recommended the most convenient and safe location. As there are no ready-made bicycle racks or companies that regularly make such racks in Armenia, the students reviewed international design standards regarding the height and distance of the racks.  Alen Amirkhanian, director of the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment, comments that “the effort is small but it shows an effective model of student activism to improve life on campus and, hopefully, the community at large. The receptiveness of the administration played a critical role. They supported the effort fully and procured the racks per our design recommendations.”

Amirkhanian believes that the movement toward using bicycles as a mode of transport in Yerevan shows signs of promise. “Although accommodations for bicycle transportation in Yerevan are currently limited, we need to start taking the important initial steps, like installing bike racks. We also need to start thinking about dedicated bike lanes and racks on buses.” He believes that that the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment can play a constructive role in encouraging eco-friendly transportation through research, pilot projects, and community outreach.

The design and the installation of the bike racks was the first part of the “AUA Bicycle and Recycle” initiative, aiming to make AUA a more eco-friendly campus. The next focus in the initiative will be the implementation of a campus-wide recycling program.

High School Outreach

image001

Students at Khosrov Reserve, taking coordinates for Bearded Vulture nest.

YEREVAN–For the past year, the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment has been working with students from the “Mkhitar Sebastatsi” Educational Complex in Yerevan, organizing ecological and ornithological clubs for the student to participate in a 10-week ecology and 20-week ornithology courses. Through these clubs, Siranush Tumanyan, the Acopian Center’s Education Outreach Specialist, has worked with almost 50 students (45 high-school and 5 middle-school).

image003

Siranush Tumanyan photographed in the US with an American Turkey Vulture

Taught by Tumanyan, these courses have introduced a new way of teaching these topics. “One of our objectives was to improve the methodology of teaching biology and ecology at schools. I believe we have succeeded. While students participate voluntarily, our retention rates have been very high,” says Tumanyan. “Another sign of success is that other teachers at Mkhitar Sebastatsi are now adopting the same teaching methodology.”

As part of the courses, students go on field trips across the country, visiting key sites such as the Khosrov Preserve, Sevan National Park, Byurakan Forest, Armash Fish Pond, and more.

Each student has a blog where they publish articles they write based on these field trips and classes. “What you see in these blogs are budding scientists and researchers,” says Alen Amirkhanian, Interim Director of the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment. “They are a delight to read. They are informative, insightful, and concise.”

Examples of these student blogs include ones by Avetis HarutunyanQristina Atoyan, and Sona Arsenyan.

Ms. Tumanyan has also worked with some students to translate and create e-books on the topics of ecology and ornithology. The first book, an e-book prepared by the 12-year old Erik Sahakyan, is about bird behavior and is intended for younger audiences. Copies of Mr. Sahakyan’s e-book can be viewed and downloaded from here.

A group of 10 students are now preparing a coloring book about wintering birds in Yerevan. Part of the group is working on preparing the text while the others are drawing the illustrations. This, also, is intended for younger audiences.

The AUA Acopian Center is expanding this outreach program to other schools in Yerevan. In the past month, work has started with Ayb High School, with 15 students selected by Ayb to participate in this program. “This expansion fits with our objectives of community outreach,” says Amirkhanian. “We hope that over the coming year we will be able to secure the resources to include 2 more schools.”

For more information, please write to [email protected].

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12 participants from high school identify and count birds in the botanical gardens.

 image007
  15 participants from the high school join with experts from the Zoological institute for international Euro-birdwatching Day in October 2012.

 

Sustainable Energy Projects at AUA Cut Costs, Reduce Carbon Footprint in Armenia

Duration:

image027Earlier this month, the American University of Armenia announced new solar water heating measures that will further reduce the institution’s carbon footprint.

The solar panels on the roof of AUA’s main building have been integrated into the facility’s domestic hot water system. As a result, about 70% of the hot water from any faucet in the building will now be heated through the use of solar energy.

The solar thermal collectors, installed between 1999-2002, have been used thus far to cool the air inside the small auditorium of the main building by a sophisticated process known as desiccant cooling. In addition to this, the panels will now be used produce hot water supply for use in the main building.

During sunny days, the solar thermal collectors produce up to 3 tons of hot water to provide for two days of water consumption in the main building.

The AUA main building also has 72 photovoltaic panels (total of 5 kW capacity) that allows AUA to produce electricity in its main building to meet the needs of the aforementioned Solar HVAC system, as well as emergency/server backup needs. Any excess generation of electricity is also sent to the national electricity grid.

A series of other measures to increase energy efficiency at the university are currently under development.

AUA Study: Mining in Armenia Creates Poverty, Income Inequality

Duration: 2004-2010

image001

Mine workers at the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum processing plant in Kajaran handling toxic heavy metals without breathing protection or protective gloves.  Photo by Nazik Armenakyan

Mining contributed to economic growth in Armenia between 2004-2010 while simultaneously creating income inequality and poverty. This is according to a recent study by the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment conducted in cooperation with the AUA College of Business and Economics.

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The hands of a mine worker at the molybdenum processing center at the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Plant in Kajaran. Photo by Anahit Hayrapetyan. That same man change his baby’s diaper later in the day. Photo by Nazik Armenakyan

The study’s principal researcher and author, Dr. Aleksandr Grigoryan, looks at regional-level data and reports that mining does have some positive impact on the growth of the economy.

“This supports the claim often repeated by proponents of mining that it is needed for Armenia’s economic growth,” says Dr. Grigoryan, an assistant professor of economics at AUA.

Mining and Income Inequality

Dr. Grigoryan’s analysis, however, also shows that mining contributes to higher poverty and greater income inequality. “Our analysis shows that the mining sector is likely to increase income inequality and deepen poverty in the regions of Armenia in which it operates,” states Grigoryan.

This runs counter to claims by mining proponents that the sector creates jobs that will have medium- to long-term development impact on the regions and the country.

These conflicting realities can be explained by a number of factors prevalent in Armenia’s economy, according to Grigoryan.

“Mining has been growing as a share of the Armenian economy for several years now but with the economic crisis and increase in world metal prices, mining took on a more significant role in our GDP growth,” he explains, noting that this trend is expected to continue if no other sector of the economy picks up steam.

Mining and Poverty

An increase in poverty is another observed effect of mining, a relationship that Dr. Grigoryan says needs to be studied further.

Other research on the impact of mining conducted by the AUA School of Public Health and AUA Acopian Center reports some residents claiming that property owners are forced to sell their properties at very low prices. Such occurrences, if they have taken place, would deprive villagers of an asset critical to wealth creation, according to Dr. Grigoryan.

Moreover, workers in the mining or mineral processing industries are not provided health insurance, a fact that may burden families with health costs or lower productivity.

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A young man in a hospital bed with his wife. He has a stomach ulcer and believes it’s from working at the mine. Photo by Nazik Armenakyan.

The Role of Policy

“If we are to make mining a key sector in the Armenian economy, we also have to develop the right socio-economic policies where the immediate communities and the country benefits maximally,” says Alen Amirkhanian, director of the AUA Acopian Center.

Mining and extractive industries have played a significant role in ensuring long-term and equitable growth for several countries, particularly Norway, Australia, and Botswana. “These countries have successfully used mining to raise the standard of living for a vast majority of their populations because they devised and implemented good public policy,” stresses Amirkhanian, who organized an international conference last November on the topic.

Without proper policies designed to regulate and leverage mining, Armenia will continue on a path that follows mining models that enrich a few while depriving larger numbers of current and future generations of opportunities to benefit from their patrimony, states Amirkhanian.

According to the Armenian Statistical Service, in 2011, Armenia’s mining industry employed 15,500 workers or about 1% of the country’s total employment and contributed to about 3% of the its GDP.

AUA is organizing another international scientific conference on “Emerging Issues in Environmental and Occupational Health.”  The conference, set for April 22-23, will bring leading experts from around the world to Yerevan to explore the impact of mining and construction in transition economies such as Armenia. The research they present will provide solutions to the occupational and environmental health problems facing workers, communities and children and help craft public policy to address these issues.

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Cow drinking water from at the Artsvanik tailing pond from the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum mine in Kajaran. Photo by Nazik Armenakyan

The photos included are from the “Investigative Photojournalism for Human Rights and Clear Environment” project, made possible through the assistance of the Open Society Foundations- Armenia. The project was implemented by Socioscope NGO.

 

ReGardening of Eden

Duration:

image001The concept came about through a concerned collaboration between the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment and Armenia Tree Project.

The goal is to restore the village of Margahovit, Lori marz, to its former beauty. The project will comprise three main elements: (i) the establishment of a local park, (ii) creation of a sustainable trash collection and recycling program and, perhaps most importantly, (iii) the education of local children and adult residents in the significance of environmental stewardship. Then, as the trees grow, the flowers bloom, and the birds return to the garden, trainings on bird watching and the appreciation of nature will also follow.

For more information please visit the website: http://www.regardeningofeden.org/

 

 

Saving Armenian Gull

Duration: 

Birds of Armenia Project (AUA)
Lake Sevan 1999

Armenian Gull breeds in lakes Sevan and Arpi in Armenia. At Lake Sevan it breeds in “Gull islands” which, as a result of constant water  level lowering in the lake, joined the coast by the end of 1990-s, thus turning into a peninsula and  has become open to predators and domestic cattle. Predators such as foxes and stray dogs caused much harm to Gulls by eating their eggs and nestlings. As for domestic animals, they trampled down the eggs wandering around the island.

The island became open to tourists who frightened the birds and raised panic among them. That harmful circumstance, as it may seem at first sight, had the most fatal consequences: eggs were getting too cold during the first period of nesting and in the period of mass hatching the frightened birds were leaving their nests. The parents in the useless search of their nestlings were pecking the other lost nestlings to death.

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The only way to rescue the Armenian Gull was to turn its nesting into an island again. For that purpose, it was necessary to remove the isthmus, digging a channel between the island and the coast. Unfortunately, the corresponding departments didn’t take active part in it for certain reasons, though they were well aware of the urgent need of isolation of the nesting place.

Thus, on 14 May, 1999, the project workers, equipping themselves with corresponding techniques, conducted land-utilizing works by digging 18 meters wide breach and 0.8-2.3 meters deep strait.

In the same year we organized a pilot monitoring of the nesting place of the Armenian Gull in “Gull islands” which testified that our efforts were not vain. The eggs and nestlings were saved! As a result, the generation of Armenian Gull was conserved.

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Making of the channel

Each year before the beginning of nesting season we visit the island and measure the depth and width of the strait in order to step in again in case of need.

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Competition “At my bird feeder”/”Birds in my backyard”, Winter-Spring Season

Duration: 2003-present

Acopian Center for the Environment
In cooperation with various NGOs and state bodies

Introduction

image001Today, most of the faced environmental problems are the result of lack of environmental education. It is very important to start environmental education in the school period, with this appropriate attitude will be developed at an early age. However, as we know, children like to play, but not to learn. Accordingly, the education should be designed as a game, and not like a lesson. For such type of interactive education, the watching of the birds is of high advantage such as competition, joy and safe and a way of close interaction with nature. In winter, as many birds come to the cities, towns and villages with the hope to find some food, it is easy to close distance for watching them by attracting their attention with food. Bird feeders are preferable to be made by children because of two purposes: education of children and feeding of the birds, and participation and help of the parents in the process. It will be also an indirect support to develop positive attitude to birds, which is very important and actual nowadays in panic conditions concerning to threat of avian influenza.

Background

image005In December of 2003 “Birds of Armenia” project together with Ecoclub “Ani” of Saint Akob Curch in Gyumri have started winter competition titled “At my bird feeder…” Children from different schools of Gyumri made feeders and placed them in the backyards and parks. Then, they painted pictures of birds in winter, wrote stories about birds and sent them to us together with the photos of feeders they made. Judges chose the best paintings and stories and the winners of the competition got prices (binoculars, books about birds, etc). Presentation of the results took place on the International Bird Day, which we made the mid of April of 2004 in the Central Park of Gyumri. More than 200 children with their parents and friends joined us during the event, so that the next year we enlarged the borders of the competition and involved Yerevan, Vanadzor, Stepanavan and Gyumri. We closely cooperated with our partners who helped us to organize the competition: EcoClub “Ani” in Gyumri, Yerak NGO in Vanadzor, and LTEIC NGO in Stepanavan.  We also put new nomination “The best observation” in the competition. In this time more than 2000 people joined us and we conducted International Bird Day Celebration in all four cities. One of the competitors made exclusive feeder, and received official governmental patent license for 15 years. From 2006 to 2007 environmental oriented Peace Corp volunteers also were involved in the project. They were the representatives of “Birds In My Backyard” competition, each in their own villages or towns. Starting from 2006 more then 48 volunteers were involved in the project from different parts of Armenia.

image003From the period of 2008-2009 we started to cooperate with governance offices in different regions and with “National Center for Educational Technologies” a state non trade organization, therefore we involved more children, as they were supporting in spreading information.

Based on the experience we have, we can say that really enjoy participating in such kind of activities involving their parents in feeder making process, which is more important as a part of indirect adult education.

Goals and objectives

We would like to enlarge the competition and involve some more sites where Peace Corp volunteers are operating and not only environmental oriented Peace Corp volunteers but all of them. The main goal is to involve as many children as possible in the competition and make their participation active. For this purpose we suggest the following:

Methods

We will conduct two-three seminars with our partners to discuss the difficulties and solutions of previous actions and train them for this year.

With the help of our partners, we will distribute the announcement about competition as well as appropriate instructions (how to make feeders, what kind of food birds prefer, etc.) among the schools in all the towns and cities where Peace Corp volunteers are operating.

Also a radio interviews were also broadcast where the children themselves told about the competition and the stories of how they helped the birds during the cold winter months.

With the help of our partners, we will collect competition works and the Judges will choose the best ones. In the middle of the winter after Christmas we remind all partners and schools about importance of feeding birds.

In the beginning of April, we will conduct Celebration of International Bird Day, where the winners will be announced and the prices will be handed to them.

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Results and the measurement

Increased number of competition works and their increasing quality will serve as an estimation of their participation activity. The bird-feeder-watchers’ activity will be measured by the number of received bird photos at feeders. During the time provided more then 4000 schoolchildren from 360 schools participated in the competition. What is worth mentioning is that the teachers and the parents of the children also took active part in the feeder making process.

Awarding ceremony

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Awarding of the most active PC volunteer

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Pictures of winners 2008

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Amirkhanyan Ani

Balagyozyan RafikOveyan Mariam

Photos of winners 2009

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Stepanyan ArmanMaghakyan KarenGrigoryan Mikayel

In 2008-2009 in the frames of the competition schools in their initiative organized various events in  schools and  parks of Yerevan. Children took part in a performance singing songs about birds, and described in a unique way the specifications of different birds. Some schools put the feeders in the yard of the school and some took it to the Lovers` Park.

School events

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 In the yard of the schoolPlay in the schoolIn Park

Winners of 2008-2009 were taken to Armenian Tree Project for educational purpose.

Celebration of winners 2009

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Awarding ceremonyOn the way to ATPATP nursery

Schoolchildren were very excited by visiting the nursery and having a small descriptive lecture about   plants and tree species growing there, and also they had a discussion on the environmental issues of Armenia and in general.

Group photo

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Winners together

Bird Identification Training Course

Duration: 2004-present
Acopian Center for the Environment

The course is teaching how to identify different bird species and how to observe them in nature. The course is aimed at all levels starting from a beginner and consists of PowerPoint presentations teaching basics of identification of various bird groups and families, plumage variations by age and seasons. It also includes several field trips, with provided optical equipment. At the end of the course, the best students get an Armenian book “A Field Guide to Birds of Armenia”.

Course for Beginners

This course consists of 30 lessons where the students learn identification of more than 100 bird species in breeding plumages. The duration of each lesson is 1 hour from Sep to May with meetings scheduled once per week. During the course we have 3 field trips to Lake Sevan, Lori district and Aragats mountain where we can observe bird species, studied during the lectures.

Description of the course

Each lesson consists of the description of several species by painting and training part, when students try to identify known birds by photos, which are following each other after 15 sec. During the course, students learn Identification of different Ducks, Raptors, Woodpeckers, Passerines etc. (see below) image002image004

After passing the test students receive appropriate certificates.

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Advanced Course

The advanced course consisted of 30 lessons where students learn how to identify more bird species as well as the known birds in different plumages. In total, they learned to identify more than 200 species. The duration of each lesson was 1 hour from Sep 18 to May 30 with meetings scheduled once per week. During the course, we had 3 field trips to Armash fish-farming ponds, Noravank gorge and Dilijan forest where we could observe such bird species, as Herons, Falcons, Finches, etc.

History

2004

Bird Identification Training Course was initiated in 2004 with 1 group of students that consisted of 15 people. The experiment was very successful and we decided to continue it in autumn of 2005. We posted announcements in different high schools and universities of Yerevan.

2005

 image009In 2005, over 90 people joined the Beginning Course as first-year students. They were divided into 4 different groups, where the classes were held in three languages: Armenian, English and Russian.

 

image011In total, we had 3 field excursions to the Sevan, Aragats mountain, and Lori regions.

We had three field excursions to SevanLake where we observed some water birds.

2006-2009

Over 160 students

All courses were carried out in three languages (Armenian, English, Russian) and conducted for local as well as foreign students. The courses were held in a friendly and enthusiastic atmosphere irrespectively of the students’ age, which varies from 12 to 68 y.o.

 

 

Field Training for the Students of Natural History Department of Quantum College in Aghavnadzor

Duration: 

Birds of Armenia project
Quantum college

Each year Quntum Qollege of Armenia organizes a military-patriotic camp for its students. In the year of 2004, a Natural Scientific branch was also launched in the camp where several students had a biological training.

The branch was created by a group of students with the support of the Quntum director Robert Vardanyan, and the supervisor of the Natural Sciences branch Levon Asatryan with direct participation and coordination of the employees of the Birds of Armenia Project. During the second quarter of 2004 seminars and regular weekly training on Avifauna of the Caucasus and particularly of Armenia were held. At the end of the year, we organized and carried out a biological practice for the elder students (those studying in the 8th and 9th grades). A decision was made to research the birds in Aghavnadzor. For this purpose, a field trip to Tsakhkunyats ridge was organized under the supervision of BOA project senior scientist Karen Aghababyan and a child/teenage tourism tutor of BOA Vladimir Shamenkov.

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image005The trip lasted for seven days during which the weather was mainly cloudy and rainy although it was also sunny for some short period of times. Right before the trip, the students had training preparing them for the practical work. The participants were introduced to the biologist field equipment, learned how to use binoculars and a telescope and were taught bird identification skills.

During the first day, we passed across the ridge went out from a broad-leaved forest into a subalpine meadow and settled the first camp in the higher border of the birch grove. The next day we moved to another place for the camp since the first one was not really convenient. We found here a nest of a Great Tit (Parus major), built in a pipe of the pavilion where there were 5 rather grown up nestlings.

 

In the result of the trip, 103 species of birds were identified 3 of which were identified in that region for the first time. It is the Pernis apivorus, Otus scops, which was found by its voice  Emberiza melanocephala.

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Winter Bird Count

Duration: 2005-present

Acopian Center for the Environment (ACE)
Participants: ACE staff and invited volunteers

The AUA Acopian Center for the Environment in cooperation with volunteers and enthusiasts from different fields, organized winter bird count in Yerevan Botanical garden.

Botanical garden is one of the largest green territories in Yerevan city with half-wild oases. There are several notable species of birds breeding there, such as Levant Sparrowhawk, Hobby, Long-eared Owl, Syrian Woodpecker, Golden Oriole, Common Nightingale, Greenfinch etc. Food availability compels winter bird species to come down and stay in the garden during the winter.

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The main aim of the count is to monitor:

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We have been organizing annual winter bird count in Botanical garden starting from 2005. It lasts for about three months from the end of November till the end of December, and is conducted ones a week. Every count day in early morning we pass the same route with 1km length, during this we record all encountered bird species, their number, the approximate distance between the bird and observer, angle, height and their behavior. After passing the main count route we explore other parts of the territory for the species, which have been possibly missed earlier.

After several years it will be possible to analyze some details depending on winter birds in Yerevan and analyze the effectiveness of linear count in comparison with diffusion watch and count.

This count gives us an opportunity to record strictly wintering bird species such us Redwing, Fieldfare, Common Goldcrest, European Siskin, etc.

Participation in winter bird count is a good experience for beginners: “Bird Identification Training”’ (ACE) students, student-zoologists and enthusiasts, who are interested in birds. This gives them an opportunity to study linear bird count technique and to improve bird identification skills. Every year about 8-12 young people join our winter bird counts.

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List of recorded bird species in Botanical garden

(2005 – 2009)

  1. Eurasian Sparrowhawk
  2. Common Buzzard
  3. Common Kestrel
  4. Common Woodpigeon
  5. Rock Dove
  6. Syrian Woodpecker
  7. Middle Spotted Woodpecker
  8. European Green Woodpecker
  9. Dunnock
  10. European Robin
  11. Redwing
  12. Mistle Thrush
  13. Fieldfare
  14. Common Blackbird
  15. Common Goldcrest
  16. Blue Tit
  17. Great Tit
  18. Eurasian Jay
  19. Common Magpie
  20. Western Jackdaw
  21. Rook
  22. Hooded Crow
  23. Common Raven
  24. House Sparrow
  25. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
  26. Common Chaffinch
  27. European Greenfinch
  28. European Goldfinch
  29. European Siskin
  30. Brambling
  31. Common Linnet
  32. Hawfinch
  33. Yellowhammer
  34. Rock Bunting

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monitoring of Raptors in the Forest of Aragats Mountain

Duration: 2005-2006 

Acopian Center for the Environment
Yerevan State University

In 2005 we have started a pilot survey of raptors at the forest area of AragatsMountain. We would like to find out possibilities of long term monitoring of raptor species. One of the main objectives of the project was the practical independent research education of the students of YerevanStateUniversity and PedagogicalUniversity. All the work of the field year of 1995 was performed by the BA last year students Maro Kochinyan and Hayk Harutyunyan. They were assisted by a couple of younger students and several volunteers of the “Birds of Armenia” project. The research was done under the direct supervision of senior scientific researcher Karen Aghababyan. In the course of the research 6 long term field trips were held in the research region.

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Forest area of Aragats mountain

The forest area of Aragats is rather small but includes nearly all diurnal forest raptor species found in Armenia.

Particularly we found the following species:

 

Honey Buzzard Pernis apivorus – 1*
Black Kite Milvus migrans – 1
Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus – 1
Common Buzzard Buteo buteo – 4
Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina – 1
Booted Eagle Hieraaetus pennatus – 1
Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus – 2
Goshawk Accipiter gentilis – 1

 

*quantity is given in pairs

Nestlings of Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)

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Photos of “Raptors of Aragats” project

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Nest of Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina        Eggs of Lesser Spotted Eagle  Aquila pomarina
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Nest of Common Buzzard Buteo buteo Eggs of Common Buzzard Buteo buteo
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Nest tree of Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus                                  Egg of Short-toed Eagle, Circaetus gallicus

 

Below is the copy of article published in Russian Conservation News No.39 Summer 2005

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Monitoring of Long-legged Buzzard’s Population in Armenia

Duration: 2006-2008

Acopian Center for the Environment
Yerevan State University
State Pedagogical University

Birds of prey are excellent environmental indicators and flagship species for natural-resource conservation. Increasing of Armenian agriculture and other blanches of industry can have a negative impact to environment. To track the possible influence of industry to our nature we would like to start monitoring of subpopulations of model species in some regions of Armenia.

As a species to be monitored we have chosen Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) because it is most common rodent-eating bird that breeds in whole Armenia.

It will include mapping of nests, and survey of reproductive success. In 2006 we will conduct a pilot survey to see how many nests we can find.

Then in 2007 and later on we will investigate their feeding, reproductive success and analyze collected data on GIS Arc View.

The project will include education of local inhabitants about importance of rodent-eating raptors for agriculture and nature ecosystems.

The surveys were conducted by students, who have completed BITC courses in AcopianCenter for the Environment.

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Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus, outskirts of Gusana village, Shirak region of Armenia, Sep 9 2005.

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Distribution map of the Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus in Armenia

Results:

The Long-legged Buzzard (hereinafter LLB, Buteo rufinus) in Armenia was studied during 2006-2008 in frames of general bird survey trips and special trips aimed searching of the LLB nests. The study area covers some districts in central part of Armenia. The distances between the nests (nearest neighbour distance) vary in different regions of Armenia: in Vedi district the mean distance is 1.98±0,19km (n=10) while in Vayots Dzor region the mean distance is 3.04±0.3km (n=5); t=3.14, p=0.008. The difference in density seems correlated with steepness of surrounding area, since the Vedi district is generally more flat, than the Vayots Dzor region, which indicates that probably LLB prefer habitats with less steepness of slopes. Most probably it depends on hunting technique of LLB, which catches the prey on the ground dropping down from 5-10m. The other limiting factor is cliff availability, since in Armenia LLB breeds only on cliffs. Although LLB does not show dependence on the height of the cliffs and can place the nest on the height from 2 to 30m, it does not breed on trees, like in some parts of its area in Siberia.

The concluding results of the studies will be presented as an article on the International Raptor Conference in autumn 2009 in Switzerland.

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In the frames of the study a GIS shape file was developed, covering all cliffs and rocky massifs of the entire territory of Armenia.

 

 


Relevant publication
:

Some habitat preferences of Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) in Armenia
Hovanisyan, T., Janoyan, G., Schaefer, M., Aghababyan, K.

 

Endemic Wheats of Armenia Project

Duration: 2008

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAArmenia, although a small country, is very rich in wild relatives of cultivars, including the ancestors and donors of such important cultivated plants as bread cereals. The study of wild species of wheat, barley, goat grass, rye and others of the cereal crops represents a large practical interest. Progenitors of cultivars are often carriers of valuable attributes and features, such as high drought and frost resistance, the ability to grow on relatively poor soils, and resistance to pests and disease. That is why wild relatives are valuable material for the selection of new varieties of cultivated plants.

In addition to this, purely in practical terms, the study of wild relatives of cereal crops are of particular help in understanding the path by which many thousands of years ago the creation of the modern cultivated grasses from wild cereal crops took place, and in giving a more precise definition to the regions where the agricultural civilization arose. From that viewpoint, the study of the history of domestic bread cereals helps to shed light not only on the history of agriculture but on the history of humans in a broad sense.

Conserving the rich gene pool of wild relatives of wheat cultivars in Armenia is an urgent concern, as more and more land is disturbed by growing economic activity, land privatization, and other factors. Therefore, it is extremely important to evaluate the different Armenian populations of wheat and other cereals and to conserve this valuable material. This can be achieved through periodic population monitoring, conservation in situ, and through the collection of seed material for preservation ex-situ.

Previously, botanists have conducted numerous comprehensive studies of cereal crops, and also led archaeobotanical excavations which shed light on the relatively early stages of the domestication of grasses. This current project will facilitate more comprehensive studies of the populations of wild cereal crops through the use of modern cytogenetic and molecular biology methods.

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Maps

ACE (Acopian Center for the Environment, Tom Lyman & Meike Schaefer)
ECODIT (Environmental Consulting Agency, Kurt Sanderson)

The AUA Acopian Center for the Environment produced the maps for the USAID Armenia Biodiversity Analysis Update Report compiled by ECODIT in December 2008. The following maps were produced and submitted to the Biodiversity Analysis Team Leader:

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– Country map with administrative areas
– Map of forest reserves
– Map of climate, rainfall and soils
– Map of ecological landscapes
– Map of mineral resources
– Map of water resources (incl. Ramsar sites)
– Map of protected areas
– Map of deforestation rates
– Map of geological features
– Map of vegetation zones
– Map of mining sites
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The Effect of Pesticides on the Populations of Peregrine Falcon in Meghri District of Southern Armenia

Duration: 2008

Acopian Center for the Environment (ACE)
Participants: ACE staff and volunteers
Meghri forestry administration

The AUA Acopian Center for the Environment with the support of Peregrine Fund and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 2008 have conducted  a survey of Peregrine Falco in Meghri district.

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Red field – study areaPeregrine nest sites

Objectives:

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Peregrine Falcon оn the nesting cliff

 

Results:

Two long term field trips were organized to the Meghri region, during March and May 2008.

We visited six known nest sites and three assumed ones.

For all of the observed breeding territories various parameters were recorded, such as GPS data, habitat description, elevation a.s.l., slope and aspect, and the height above the ground for the nests, behavior of breeding birds, nestlings and fledglings, food resource, Peregrine competition with other raptors. A number of birds, nests and biotope photos were taken.

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Peregrine Falcon nesting cliffs in the semidesert and forest areas

From all the six known Peregrine nests in Meghri region only one successful pair with two fledglings were found, one site was occupied with two adults, but there were no young, and another site with only one adult bird. All other sites were unoccupied.

Analyzing these data and comparing it with previous ones the decline of Peregrine population in Meghri region becomes obvious. We assume that the main reason for the decline is the poisoning, such as sedimentary reservoirs of the copper, molybdenum and gold mines; use of pesticides for agriculture; forest management in frames of pest control.

During the whole project we worked with the local people from Meghri forestry administration and local enthusiasts. This co-operation helped us to do the data collection more effectively and to explain some details about poisoning and poaching.

Two articles on Peregrine Falcon research results are in process of  publication.

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Peregrine Falcon Meghri forestry administration

Table 1. Peregrine Falco in Meghri region, breeding pairs

 

Lehvaz FPLGVZ1Meghri FPMGR1Agarak FPAGR1 FPAGR2Gravi Dzor FPGRV1Burtinqar FPBRT1 FPBRT2 Nyuvadi AXNVD1
19963 nestling
FPAGR1
19974 nestling
FPAGR1
1998empty3 nestling3 nestling
FPAGR2
1999
2000empty4 nestling4 nestling
FPAGR2
3 juv.
2001empty3 nestling2 ad2 ad
20022 nestling2 ad
20032 ad2 ad2 ad2 ad
20042 ad2 ad2 ad
2005

2006
20074 nestling

20081 ad
0 nestling
2 nestlingemptyempty2 ad 0 nestlingempty
20092 ad 0 nestling3 nestlingemptyvoice of ad

During the Peregrine Falcon survey we also collected data about Bearded Vulture and Eurasian Griffon nests and breeding success. Comparing data on Griffon with previous ones, increase in breeding pairs and fledglings has been found in some colonies. Also one new colony was found. Bearded Vulture population remained stable.

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Adult Griffon on the nest

Griffon Vulture

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 Bearded Vulture

 Bearded Vulture nest

Monitoring Dissolved Oxygen in the Hrazdan River

Duration: 2007-2008

Acopian Center for the Environment
Washington University

image001The Hrazdan River is the primary waterway in Armenia and country’s second largest river.  While the Hrazdan receives effluent from various agricultural, commercial, industrial, and residential sources, it is most significantly impacted by the discharge of Yerevan’s almost entirely untreated wastewater.  The effects of this poorly treated wastewater are evident through a variety of water quality indicators, most notably through drastic drops in dissolved oxygen (DO) levels downstream of the city.

The aim of this study was to quantify the effect Yerevan’s wastewater discharge have on health of the Hrazdan River by monitoring dissolved oxygen levels in an 18-km stretch that began two kilometers upstream of the wastewater outfalls.

Water quality sampling was conducted from March to August 2008.  DO levels consistently dropped to below 5% of the saturated dissolved oxygen level (the maximum oxygen content achievable at the given temperature and pressure) and to levels well below those permitting a healthy aquatic ecosystem.  DO levels achieved partial re-aeration within the first 10 kilometers after the wastewater outfall, but they depreciated again, likely due to continued biological oxygen demand from agricultural runoff.  The 16 kilometers downstream of the wastewater outfalls in the study area were not sufficient for the river to achieve full re-aeration.

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Additional water quality, hydrologic, biological, atmospheric, and observational data was also collected during the course of this study and may later be used to generate a predictive model of the DO content of the river under different scenarios.

Invasive Species in Native and Non-native Ranges

Duration: 2007-2008  

Armenia, ECRC/AUA
USA, University of Montana, University of California
Argentina, Universidad Nacional de La Pamba
Turkey, Adnan Menderes University
Georgia, Institute of Botany
Romania, Institute Of Biological Research
Hungary, Insttute of Ecology and Botany

General view of the experimental field in Armenia

General view of the experimental field in Armenia

Studying germination in the native and non-native range of a species can provide unique insights into processes of range expansion and adaptation; however, traits related to germination have rarely been compared between native and nonnative populations. In a series of common garden experiments, we explored whether differences in the seasonality of precipitation, specifically, summer drought vs summer rain, and the amount and variation of annual and seasonal precipitation affect the germination responses of populations of an annual ruderal plant, Centaurea solstitialis, from its native range and from two non-native regions with different climates. We found that seeds from all native populations, irrespective of the precipitation seasonality of the region in which they occurred, and non-native populations from regions with dry summers displayed similarly high germination proportions and rates. In contrast, genotypes from the non-native region with predominantly summer rain exhibited much lower germination fractions and rates and ecology. Organisms transported by humans to regions where they are not native (exotics) commonly face novel selective forces, which given enough genetic variation, may trigger novel evolutionary responses. The worldwide distribution of this species encompasses environments with contrasting precipitation regimes within both native and non-native ranges. Specifically, some of the regions where C. solstitialis grows are characterized by a Mediterranean-type climate with wet winters and dry summers, whereas other regions have a precipitation regime in which most of the precipitation falls during the summer, and winters are substantially drier. In all regions, the species germinates primarily in autumn (Sheley and Larson 1994, Hierro et al. 2006, L. Khetsuriani, L. Janoian and K. Andonian unpubl.); thus, winter conditions may affect its survival. Here, by conducting a series of common garden experiments in a growth chamber, we investigated whether contrasting differences in the seasonality of precipitation and changes in surrogates for environmental quality (e.g. precipitation totals) and risk (e.g. inter-annual variation in precipitation) affect germination responses of C. solstitialis populations occurring across its native range and in two climatically distinct non-native regions.

To investigate the potential effects of seasonality of precipitation on C. solstitialis germination, we conducted three successive seed collections from populations occurring in regions exepte France, Crete and Armenia, where seeds were pooled within populations. Mean cumulative germination percentages (91 SE) of pappus and non-pappus seeds of C. solstitialis populations plotted against the coefficient of variation of winter precipitation and the probability of occurring a good winter.

Pappus seeds maintained a strong association with variation in winter precipitation (r__0.91, pB0.001), but this relationship did not hold for nonpappus seeds (r__0.36, p_0.172). In addition, germination of both pappus and non-pappus seeds were no longer correlated with the probability of good winters (r_0.44, p_0.117 and r_0.11, p_0.387, respectively). Without Argentina, the association between germination proportions of pappus seeds and variation in annual precipitation improved slightly (r__0.70, p_0.017), whereas the correlation of these proportions with the probability of good years remained non-significant (r_0.39, p_0.150). Finally, as before, germination fractions of non-pappus seeds were not correlated with any of the measures of annual risk, and germination percentages of both seed morphs were not associated with any of the measures describing environmental quality (p_0.250 in all cases).

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Clines in these studies corresponded to variation in general climatic patterns, such as changes in climate between northern and southern latitudes (Maron et al. 2004, 2007) or between coastal versus inland environments . In contrast to these results, our comparisons based on general climatic patterns (i.e. summer drought vs summer rain) did not detect parallel clines in germination traits for populations from native and non-native ranges, as all native populations, irrespective of the climate in which they occurred, and non-native populations from the region with a summer-drought climate displayed similarly high germination proportions and rates; whereas non-native genotypes from the region with a summer rain regime exhibited much lower germination fractions and rates. On the other hand, our comparisons based on precipitation variables, which are commonly used as surrogates for environmental quality and risk, showed that for the most abundant seed morph, seeds with a pappus, germination responses of populations in both native and non-native ranges correlated strongly with ‘risk’ experienced during the winter. Specifically, and as predicted by bethedging theory, germination fractions of pappus seeds were lower in native and non-native populations experiencing greater inter-annual variation in winter precipitation (Fig. 4). For non-pappus seeds, however, this correlation was greatly influenced by non-native genotypes from central Argentina, which are from the region with the highest variation in winter precipitation of all the studied regions and exhibited the lowest proportions of germinating seeds in all our experiments (Fig. 2_4); after removing central Argentina from analyses, there was no association between germination fractions of non-pappus seeds and winter precipitation variation. Similarly, germination fractions of both pappus and non-pappus seeds correlated with probability of occurrence of good winters only in the presence of Argentinean variables. Overall, these findings suggest that rather than general climatic patterns, the degree of risk experienced at early developmental stages could exert an important control over the germination strategy of C. solstitialis populations in both native and non-native ranges. In addition, they reveal the largely unique nature among studied populations of seed germination in nonnative genotypes from central Argentina. Germination fractions of pappus seeds were also correlated with variation in annual precipitation, suggesting that overall annual risk could also play a role in the germination behavior of C. solstitialis populations. Indeed, populations experiencing comparable variation in winter precipitation in the native and non-native range tended to display similar germination fractions for this seed type . In contrast, for non-pappus seeds the link between degree of dormancy and level of winter risk does not hold when outlier Argentinean variables are removed from analyses, providing weaker support for bet-hedging across C. solstitialis populations.

Several mechanisms could be responsible for the genetic differentiation in germination traits of Californian versus Argentinean populations, including coincidental introductions, genetic drift, and natural selection operating on phenotypes formed by either a novel combination of genes  or pre-adapted genotypes (i.e. the sorting-out hypothesis _ Mu¨ller-Scha¨rer and Steinger 2004; see Leger and ice 2007 for a comprehensive discussion on these mechanisms). Outcrossing plants partition most of their genetic diversity within, rather than among, populations, which increases the probability of possessing high genetic variation upon introduction because even a few immigrants can carry much of the species’ genetic variation.

 

Full article available in  Oikos 118: 529_538, 2009

doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2009.17283.x,

# 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation # 2009 Oikos

Subject Editor: Pia Mutikainen. Accepted 31 October 2008

“Germination responses of an invasive species in native and non-native ranges”

Jose´ L. Hierro, O¨zkan Eren, Liana Khetsuriani, Alecu Diaconu, Katalin To¨ro¨ k, Daniel Montesinos,

Krikor Andonian, David Kikodze, Levan Janoian, Diego Villarreal, Marı´a E. Estanga-Mollica and Ragan M. Callaway

Winter Feeding of Water Birds on Yerevan Lake

Duration: 2002-present 

ACE (American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia)
Yerevan city municipality

Winter is the most unfavorable period for birds, especially for water birds. Low temperatures, difficult access to food, and short duration of daylight hours serve as the basic negative factors in this period for the vital activity of birds.  In addition to natural difficulties, ducks in Armenia also bear anthropogenic influences – among them the construction of on-shore reservoirs, hunting, and poaching out of the hunting season.

A large number of wild ducks gather on YerevanLake. According to the winter water bird counting done by specialists on LakeSevan and Ararat valley, comparatively fewer wild ducks are left in these places, because they are constantly troubled by fishing boats on LakeSevan and they are harassed and shot by hunters and poachers in Ararat valley. Fortunately, on YerevanLake these types of disturbance are absent. Nevertheless, ducks still have to fly from YerevanLake to the water reservoirs of Ararat valley in search of food and there they often fall by hunters’ bullets.

Starting from 2002, we have conducted annual winter feeding for water birds in order to keep the ducks on YerevanLake

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We use special dry mixtures composed of mixed fodder of barley and oats as well as crumbled dry bread and bread products. We put the bird feeding manger approximately in the middle of the lake and feed the birds once per week. We take sacks of forage on a boat to the floating manger. In addition we survey the bird species composition and count the number of birds on the lake.

We are particularly pleased that school children join us to help us with our feeding procedure. The children, during the feeding activity, also work with trained ornithologists to learn to identify and to appreciate birds in their natural setting.

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A special pleasant surprise came in 2008 when we received an initiation for a joint-duck-feeding project on YerevanLake with YerevanCity Hall. This has been the first case when we did not seek help from the administrative structures but the administration itself suggested working together.  The City Hall provided financial support for obtaining the forage and transporting it to YerevanLake.  Their support demonstrates that communities can work together in the difficult task of nature protection.

Distribution, Abundance and Habitat Preferences of Lesser Spotted Eagles in Armenia

The Lesser Spotted Eagle (Aquila pomarina) inhabits almost all deciduous forest regions of Armenia. Some fragmental data regarding distribution and abundance of the species were collected in different periods (Leister and Sosnin 1942, Dal 1954, Adamian and Klem 1999) and the breeding biology was studied on the pare in Khosrov Nature Reserve (Geylikman, Hunanyan 1975). Due to economic and energy crisis and following economic growth in Armenia from 1990-s until now the land use pattern and the forest management in Armenia was strongly altered. The mentioned factors might have a negative impact on the large forest raptor species since they are more vulnerable and sensitive to changes in their habitat. Considering that the following objectives were chosen for particular study: (1) to refine knowledge on distribution and abundance of Lesser Spotted Eagle in Armenia; (2) to study habitat preferences of the species; (3) to identify current and potential threats for the species.

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Foraging Lesser Spotted Eagle

 

 

Results

Based on the data collected during 1998-2007 it was possible to conclude the following:

1. Distances between neighboring nests are 14. 2 and 14. 3 km (based on 4 nests)

2. The average distance between the nest and limits of the hunting territory of a pair is 4. 05±0.39 km (n = 15, P<0. 05)

3. The average percentage of the forest cover within the species’ home range is 26. 07±3. 89 % (n = 15, P<0. 05);

4) There is a correlation between percentage of forest cover within the home range and the distance from the nest to the limits of hunting territory of Lesser Spotted Eagle (RPearson = 0. 548, P<0. 017)

5) The correlation can be described by the linear regression model (R = 0.548, F=5. 581, P<0. 034).

Extrapolation of these data for the rest of appropriate species’ habitats in Armenia outcomes in the maximum possible population size of the species in the country, which preliminary can be estimated as about 48-52 pairs.

The species in Armenia is facing to a number of direct and indirect threats, such as lack of enforced regulation in use of pesticides, poaching, human disturbance during breeding season and habitat loss.

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Habitat of the Lesser Spotted Eagle(left) and its nest on the oak tree(right)

 

Outcomes

1. The article regarding the subject was published. K. Aghababyan, V. Ananian, S. Tumanyan. 2008. To the Distribution and Abundance of Lesser Spotted Eagles in Armenia. // Research and Conservation of the Greater and Lesser Spotted Eagles in Northern Eurasia. Materials 5th Conference on Raptors of Northern Eurasia Ivanovo, February 4-7, 2008

2. Two amateur ornithologists (Sirnush Tumanyan and Tatevik Tamazyan) were trained in data collection and analysis and one of them, a student of Biological Department of Yerevan State University defended Master’s Thesis on the subject “To ecology of Lesser Spotted Eagles in Armenia”

3. The results of the project were used for the new edition of the Red Data Book of Armenia and would be useful for the future forest management planning and environmental assessment procedures.

Advanced GIS Training for Health Professionals

image003Acopian Center for the Environment – ACE
Center for Health Services Research and Development, Byron Crape – CHSR
Innovations in Support of Reproductive Health Project  NOVA
usaid

An advanced ArcGIS training for fifteen representatives from a total of eight health organizations in Armenia took place from May 11-14, 2009 at the computer lab of the American University of Armenia. The advanced GIS training was subcontracted to The Acopian Center for the Environment by USAID Project NOVA in the frame of “GIS in Health Training and Workshop for the Armenian Organizations for policy formulation, datadriven decision-making, planning, monitoring and evaluation”.

Training was conducted by Mr. Thomas Lyman, M.Ed., Senior GIS/GPS Specialist at the AcopianCenter for the Environment and by Mr. Byron L. Crape, MSPH, PhD from the School of Public Health at AUA.  They were assisted by Ms Meike Schaefer, M.Sc., GIS Specialist  at the AcopianCenter for the Environment, AUA, Mr Armen Asryan, MIS, from USAID project NOVA, and Ms. Anahit Bobikyan, translator.

Advanced GIS Training

The advanced GIS training was complemented by and built on the introductory training given by Mr. Armen Asryan the previous week. It was expected that all participants were familiar with the concept  of Geographic Information Systems, the particular configuration of ArcGIS 9.2, and the basic tools and  functions of this software. The Advanced GIS Training for Health Professionals  included practice in using many of the common tools and extensions for analyzing data, joining object features (OIDs) such as EXCEL Tables,  DBF, and CSV files to spatial features (FIDs), and editing files and tables to update and “populate” fields where data was missing.

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Roundtable

Following the GIS training, participants were asked to prepare presentations to be given at a Roundtable Discussion held the following week, again at AUA.  These presentations were based on actual health data supplied by their own organizations or from the training material provided by NOVA, using the tools and techniques covered in the two GIS training workshops.

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The projects (five in all) were presented at the Round Table / Workshop on May 20, 2009. During this workshop, the importance of GIS for decision making and health strategic planning was discussed in depth and recommendations for GIS applications in Armenia were presented by the participants. The need for further cooperation with and among the participants (especially RA MoH, NIH and NSS) was recognized and the need for standardized and consistent health data acquisition was stressed.

 

 

Levant Sparrowhawk Pilot Survey in Armenia

Duration: 2009

 ACE (American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia)
ACCL (Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, PA, USA)

The AUA Acopian Center for the Environment in cooperation with Acopian Center for the Conservation Learning (Hawk Mountain Sanctuary) in 2009 conducted a pilot nest survey of Levant Sparrowhawk – one of the least known Western Palearctic raptors.

Several long term trips were organized to Aragats Mt and Meghri area, Yerevan city parks were surveyed as well on a frequent basis.

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Red fields – study areas 

Field trips took substantial part of the project during April – August.

The main aims of the survey were:

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The surveys have successfully resulted in overall 17 breeding sites/pairs:

 1. Aragats Mt slopes. No nest found and no territorial pair observed here in 2009.

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2. Yerevan city. 6 breeding sites found, of which:

a) one nest was lost because of the strong wind;
b) one nest wasn’t found, but a male and a female were showing a strong territorial behavior at a putative breeding site;
c) one nest with three chicks;
d) one – with 4 chicks;
e) two nests with two chicks.

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3.  Meghri valley. 11 nests found in this area represent the highest known breeding density in Armenia.

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Due to some circumstances there were missed fledging events for four of the 11 nests – it is not known how many chicks produced each of these four nests. As for the others:

a) four nests hold 2 chicks each;
b) three nests – 3 chicks in each.

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During the surveys a nest searching technique was developed and tested as most suitable from few other methods tried.

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For all of the surveyed sites and nests there were recorded various parameters, such as nesting site GIS data, habitat description, behavior of breeding birds, nestlings and fledglings, interaction with other species and various other ecological information. Data on food was collected and taken few video footages and a number of photographs.

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The information collected in 2009 helped to achieve initial objectives of the pilot project and will significantly contribute to the future surveys of the Levant Sparrowhawk in Armenia.

 

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During the Levant Sparrowhawk surveys we were granted with the discovery of a closely related Shikra (Accipiter badius), two pairs of which were found breeding for the first time in the country.

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Butterfly Monitoring Atlas

Duration:

This project is intended to fill gaps in the National Strategy of Biodiversity Monitoring regarding the inventory and information management about Armenia’s butterflies and their habitats. At the same time it will strengthen the newly formed partnership with Butterfly Conservation Europe. The project will follow changes in species’ distribution and abundance in butterfly populations, and will examine the damages to their habitat caused by climate change and human interference. Currently, about 60% of the database is complete. In 2013 a complete database and species accounts will be prepared with all related graphics. The publication is expected by February 2014. The first ever Monitoring Atlas on Butterflies of Armenia will be regularly updated thereafter.

butterfly-monitoring-atlas

Butterfly Monitoring Atlas, sample page.

Bird Monitoring Atlas

Duration:

This project will fill gaps in the National Strategy of Biodiversity Monitoring regarding the inventory and information management on breeding birds of Armenia. It will also provide input to the European Breeding Bird Atlas, where Armenia is underrepresented. The European Bird Census Council recently appointed Dr. Karen Aghababyan as the National Coordinator of the European Breeding Bird Atlas 2. The project will trace the 3 long-term changes in breeding bird species’ distribution and abundance, as well as their habitat degradation caused by climate change and human-induced threats.

Currently, Armenia is divided into 10km by 10km grids. The field data collection routes are set up. The counting methodology is piloted. Over the next four years, Dr. Aghababyan will organize large-scale fieldwork involving hundreds of professionals and volunteers. The European Bird Census Council will use the country-specific atlases to compile a European-wide atlas, the EBBA2. With the massive amount of bird data collected, the EBBA2 will become one of the most comprehensive biodiversity data sets in the world.

White Storks

image002AUA Acopian Center for the Environment Continues to Support White Storks with the Help of Villagers and Yerevan Zoo

More than a year after the completion of its White Storks Project, the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment continues to receive calls for support from villagers in the Ararat Plain seeking advice on how to care for stork chicks that are displaced or injured from natural or human causes.

From the start of the current breeding season in early Spring to date, the Center’s logs show 37 such calls. More than half of these callers received advice on how to handle the emergency and care for the nestlings—young storks yet unable to fly. For the remainder, the AUA Acopian Center sent a vehicle to the villages to provide either veterinarian care on the spot or bring the nestlings to Yerevan for care.

To date, 13 nestlings were transferred to Yerevan to be placed under special care. Eight of these have survived. The injuries of the others were too severe, making their survival impossible with wildlife rehabilitation capabilities available in Armenia.

“We are pulling together the community resources as best as we can,” says Karen Aghababyan, chief scientist of the AUA Acopian Center. In one instance, the AUA Acopian Center sought the help of Yerevan Zoo for 4 nestlings that were thrown out of their nests during strong winds in the Ranchpar and Apaga villages.

“Such an incident, under natural conditions, eliminates the nestlings’ chances of survival. If they are not in their nests, their mothers stop caring for them,” says Dr. Aghababyan. According to him, it is best to return the nestlings to their nests immediately. But this is not always possible as necessary equipment may not be readily available. “When this happens [i.e., too much time passes] the mother may reject the nestlings if returned to the nest,” explains Dr. Aghababyan.

The concerned villagers cared for these four storks and then called the AUA Acopian Center for advice. As too much time had gone by, the AUA Acopian Center sent a vehicle to the villages to transfer the birds to the Yerevan Zoo.

“We are happy to serve as a transitory home for these four orphaned stork nestlings that hopefully will soon rejoin their flock,” say Mr. Ruben Khachatryan, director of the Zoo. He adds that “To serve nature conservation and wildlife is one of Yerevan Zoo’s main objectives.”

The storks will stay at the Zoo until they learn to fly and hunt, which is expected to happen in the coming month. While their ability to fly will develop naturally, their hunting skills require learning. “Their hunting skills will be tested at the Zoo. They will also have additional occasions to learn from other storks back in the Ararat Plain in August,” explains Dr. Aghabayan.

He adds that while the Acopian Center typically does not want to intervene in the natural processes affecting stork populations, “there are many instances where the birds are injured as a result of man made environments, such as electrical wires, pesticides in water, and the like.” He stresses that the Center’s efforts to save the storks is a small compensation for all the instances where we humans cause harm to the stork population. “Also it provides great educational opportunity for the communities involved,” concludes Dr. Aghababyan.

The White Stork Project

The White Stork Project focuses on using the very common and abundant White Stork as a potential bio-indicator of environmental changes in Armenia. By studying migration patterns and reproductive ecology of White Storks, it will be possible to determine potential impacts of climate change and increased pesticide/herbicide use in Armenia. The project is unique in that it uses villagers as citizen scientists or ‘Nest Neighbors’ in the data collection process. Their involvement with the research gives them a better understanding of wildlife ecology and improves the relationship between people and nesting storks. Prior to migration, Acopian Center scientists distribute calendar-questionnaires in the villages and show the villagers how to record information on stork arrival, departure and number of fledglings. After the storks have migrated, Acopian Center scientists collect the calendars and enter the information into a GIS database.

Help support this important project in Armenia by adopting your own stork nest. and becoming a White Stork Guardian.

During the spring, our staff also bands the nestlings and takes water and soil samples in stork feeding areas for later analysis. The Acopian Center for the Environment launched a survey on pesticide use in the Ararat Valley after the first results from soil and water sampling indicated the presence of pesticide contamination. Substantial information on almost 1000 confirmed nest sites in Armenia has been collected through 2009.

‘Nest Neighbor’ Celebrations

During the fall, Acopian Center researchers conduct award ceremonies to honor ‘Nest Neighbors’. At these celebrations, certificates and gifts are awarded, accompanied by songs and plays about storks performed by school children and speeches delivered by village representatives.

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Dr. Aghababyan launched ‘Nest Neighbors’; working with farmers and villagers, to increase public understanding of storks and their habitat. By becoming involved in wetland conservation, Armenians are starting to take notice of what is being decided for natural resource use at local, national and international levels. Now, over 500 families are involved in ‘Nest Neighbors’ and regularly monitor the stork population.

Since 1994 the Whitley Awards have been awarded annually. They are one of the largest nature conservation awards available, recognizing outstanding efforts by leading local conservationists whose work is based on sound science and which fully involves local communities.

Dr. Karen Aghababyan’s research on the white stork is focused in the Ararat Valley, home to agriculture for thousands of years. During the Soviet years the wetland areas were reduced by Government draining and although they are slowly recovering a new threat has emerged – Armenia has been granted $200 million for infrastructure development, including draining the Ararat wetlands at the base of Mount Ararat, for conversion to agriculture. For centuries the White Stork has been regarded with great affection in Europe. Although they were once prolific, the intensification of agriculture and draining of wetlands has resulted in a decline in the populations. Traditionally storks like to keep their feet wet feeding in wetlands ditches or ponds where they catch frogs, lizards and small rodents. Although many Armenians feel indifferently towards wetlands, White Storks are seen as a cultural icon. They are seldom persecuted and when storks nest close to people, on anything from telegraph poles to roofs, it is a sign of good luck. Dr. Aghababyan has made birds popular in Armenia, teaching bird identification courses in English, Russian and Armenian. Using the White Stork as a flagship species, Dr. Aghababyan launched ‘Nest Neighbors’; working with farmers and villagers, to increase public understanding of storks and their habitat. By becoming involved in wetland conservation, Armenians are starting to take notice of what is being decided for natural resource use at local, national and international levels. Now, over 500 families are involved in ‘Nest Neighbors’ and regularly monitor the stork population.

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HRH The Princess Royal and Sir David Attenborough (not pictured) presented the Whitley Award to Dr. Karen Aghababyan in 2007 at London’s Royal Geographical Society. It was the first time anyone from Armenia has won the Award.

White Stork Ringing (Banding)

1988 – present: Bird ringing or bird banding, unfortunately, is not a target activity for Birds of Armenia. Nevertheless, during implementation of our projects we used the chances of ringing various species in small numbers. Among ringed birds are species such as:

The major ringing (banding) activity was conducted within the framework of the White Stork Project – there have been 284 White Stork nestlings ringed.
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Thus Birds of Armenia keeps a database of ring (band) records for Armenia, information for ring recoveries for the last 20 years, and distributes and manages rings among local responsible ringers.
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In 2008 ring (band) data regarding a White Stork was obtained. The bird was found in Saudi Arabia 1418 kilometers far from its ringing site.
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Batumi Raptor Count

Duration: 2008-present 

Birds of Armenia (Armenia)
Youth in Action Programme (Belgium)
PSOVI (Georgia)

image002Raptors are essential part of the wildlife, indicating the health of ecosystem. Change in the Raptors’ number might indicate different type of environmental issues. One of the easiest ways to get imagination of the abundance of different raptor species is to count them on migration since they are getting together on special areas, called “bottleneck sites”.

One of such sites is situated close to Batumi in Western Georgia (Ajaria), on the Black Sea coast, which is close to another raptor counting place – Borchka in Eastern Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of raptors fly through the area during autumn migration (from late August to October).

In 2008 the activity involved 28 volunteers and student trainees from Belgium, Holland, Georgia and Armenia.

image003In 2009 other countries have joined the initiative, such as Turkey, France, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Georgia etc. Apart from participation in the count BOA also took part in organizing and implementing the “Young Birdwatchers Exchange Program”, which aims to bring together birdwatchers from a number of countries. In frames of this project BOA has distributed a recruitment announcement in Armenia, interviewed applicants and selected the most appropriate candidates. Before leaving to Batumi the selected applicants were provided with preliminary training in Armenia, both in auditorium and in the field. BOA provides each of the local candidates with a copy of “A Field Guide to Birds of Armenia”, a pair of binoculars and a spotting scope for use throughout the count.

Upon arrival to Batumi Karen Aghababyan as a leader teacher gives an intensive raptor identification course for the first three days for all the students of “Young Birdwatchers Exchange Program”.

To teach the student BOA using a part of the Bird Identification Training Course (BITC).

Results

During the counting period (by 6-22 /Sep/2008), there were counted  815374 raptors in average more than 67000 per day. We had huge number of Honey Buzzard, Black Kite, Montagu’s Harrier, Booted Eagle, Levant Sparrowhawk, etc., and also Snake Eagle, Osprey, Lesser Spotted and Steppe Eagle, etc.

During the count of 2009 the Crested Honey Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) was recorded, the second time for Caucasus.

Accipiter spec.7
Aquila spec.805
Black Kite58021
Black Stork1094
Black Vulture1
Booted Eagle3553
Buzzard spec.0
Common Buzzard3
Crane42
Egyptian Vulture13
Falco spec.172
Golden Eagle1
Goshawk13
Greater Spotted Eagle78
Griffon Vulture1
Harrier spec.127
Hen Harrier7
Hen/Pallid/Montagu’s Harrier61
Hobby418
Hobby/Red-footed Falcon166
Honey Buzzard394451
Imperial Eagle23
Kestrel43
Kestrel spec.424
large unidentified raptor2
Lesser Kestrel90
Lesser Spotted Eagle1826
Lesser Spotted/Greater spotted/Steppe Eagle908
Levant Sparrowhawk3286
Long-legged Buzzard117
Marsh Harrier4098
medium unidentified raptor37219
Merlin8
Montagu’s Harrier947
Montagu’s/Pallid Harrier7264
Osprey55
Pallid Harrier510
Peregrine22
Peregrine/Saker11
Red Kite1
Red-footed Falcon265
Roller1237
Rough-legged Buzzard1
Saker3
Short-toed Eagle653
small unidentified raptor2
Sparrowhawk4346
Sparrowhawk spec.3688
Steppe Buzzard275004
Steppe Buzzard/Honey Buzzard13629
Steppe Eagle174
Stork spec.6
unidentified raptor142
White Pelican2
White Stork328
White-tailed Eagle6

image007To this day AUA Acopian Center for the Environment continues its cooperation with the Batumi Raptor Count (BRC) by developing and delivering environmental education programs to youth from all parts of the Caucasus. In 2013, Hasmik Ter-Voskanyan (in August) and Siranush Tumanyan (in September) led youth groups, including some from Armenia.

In early September, Dr. Karen Aghababyan, AUA Acopian Center chief scientist, attended the International Batumi Bird Festival organized by BRC. During his visit, Dr. Aghababyan discussed opportunities for expanding cooperation between the organizations through development of nature-based tourism as well as strengthening environmental-education and bird-monitoring programs.

“This is a relationship we want to develop further,” says Alen Amirkhanian, director of the AUA Acopian Center. “Batumi provides an unparalleled setting in the Caucasus to educate and conduct research on the environment. Importantly we are able to do this jointly with people from all parts of the Caucasus and Europe. Developing this type of cooperation is essential for addressing environmental protection needs,” says Amirkhanian.

BRC is a vital nature conservation program in the region. It monitors the more than 850,000 birds of prey that migrate through the “Batumi Bottleneck” every fall. It also works to protect the birds from illegal shootings and trappings, practices that continue to this day.

Batumi is a Black Sea coastal city in the Ajara region of the Republic of Georgia.

Whitley Awards for ACE White Stork projects

Since 1994 the Whitley Awards have been awarded annually. They are one of the largest nature conservation awards available, recognizing outstanding efforts by leading local conservationists whose work is based on sound science and which fully involves local communities.

Dr. Karen Aghababyan’s research on the white stork is focused in the Ararat Valley, home to agriculture for thousands of years. During the Soviet years the wetland areas were reduced by Government draining and although they are slowly recovering a new threat has emerged – Armenia has been granted $200 million for infrastructure development, including draining the Ararat wetlands at the base of Mount Ararat, for conversion to agriculture. For centuries the White Stork has been regarded with great affection in Europe. Although they were once prolific, the intensification of agriculture and draining of wetlands has resulted in a decline in the populations. Traditionally storks like to keep their feet wet feeding in wetlands ditches or ponds where they catch frogs, lizards and small rodents. Although many Armenians feel indifferently towards wetlands, White Storks are seen as a cultural icon. They are seldom persecuted and when storks nest close to people, on anything from telegraph poles to roofs, it is a sign of good luck. Dr. Aghababyan has made birds popular in Armenia, teaching bird identification courses in English, Russian and Armenian. Using the White Stork as a flagship species, Dr. Aghababyan launched ‘Nest Neighbors’; working with farmers and villagers, to increase public understanding of storks and their habitat. By becoming involved in wetland conservation, Armenians are starting to take notice of what is being decided for natural resource use at local, national and international levels. Now, over 500 families are involved in ‘Nest Neighbors’ and regularly monitor the stork population.

HRH The Princess Royal and Sir David Attenborough (not pictured) presented the Whitley Award to Dr. Karen Aghababyan in 2007 at London’s Royal Geographical Society. It was the first time anyone from Armenia has won the Award.

“Nest Neighbor” Celebrations

During the fall, Acopian Center researchers conduct award ceremonies to honor “Nest Neighbors”. At these celebrations, certificates and gifts are awarded, accompanied by songs and plays about storks performed by school children and speeches delivered by village representatives.

Dr. Aghababyan launched ‘Nest Neighbors’; working with farmers and villagers, to increase public understanding of storks and their habitat. By becoming involved in wetland conservation, Armenians are starting to take notice of what is being decided for natural resource use at local, national and international levels. Now, over 500 families are involved in ‘Nest Neighbors’ and regularly monitor the stork population.

Tree and Shrub List for Armenia

Partial List of Trees and Shrubs for Armenia

After the massive tree-cutting period of the early 1990s, caused by the economic blockade and the energy crisis, there was much discussion about deforestation in Armenia. During that period people were cutting trees everywhere and removing anything wooden to burn for heat!
Tree planting is the best action to take in order to mitigate deforestation and tree removal. However care must be taken not to unwittingly harm the environment. One may ask how is it possible to harm the environment by planting trees?

There are many non-Armenian tree species (non-native species), which are invasive and can aggressively occupy an area by crowding out and eventually replacing native, indigenous species of trees. Unfortunately, in Armenia, after the massive tree-cutting period of the early 1990s the planting of invasive species became a common practice, mostly due to lack of awareness of the ecological detriment that planting of invasive species can cause.

Below is a partial list of trees and shrubs which are growing in Armenia. We generally recommend planting only species that are labeled as ‘native’. Any species labeled ‘invasive’ should never be planted and actually should be removed whenever possible. These invasive species have a particular ability to produce thousands and thousands of seeds that can germinate, grow and eventually shade out native species.

There are other ecological reasons for planting only native species of plants having to do with the interactions of insects and wildlife with the plant species.

Scientific Name

Common Name

Native Habitat

Native?

Notes

Acer negundo
boxelder
USA, southern Canada
non-native
invasive
Acer platanoides
Norway maple
Europe
  
Acer pseudoplatanus
Planetree maple, Sycamore maple
Europe, western Asia (cultivated for centuries)
  
Acer tataricum
Tatarian maple
southeast Europe, western Asia
  
Acer trautvetteri
Caucasian maple
Caucasia, northern Turkey
native
 
Aesculus hippocastanum
Horsechestnut
Greece, Albania
non-native
 
Ailanthus altissima
tree of Heaven
China
non-native
extremely invasive
Albizia julibrissin
mimosa, silk tree
Iran to central China
non-native
 
Amygdalus communis
almond
Middle East
  
(Prunus dulcis)
    
Armeniaca vulgaris
apricot
Armenia
native
 
(Prunus armeniaca)
    
Betula pendula
    
     
Betula litwinowii
  
native
 
Biota orientalis
Oriental arborvitae
Korea, Manchuria, northern China
non-native
 
(Thuja orientalis)
    
Buddleia davidi
butterfly-bush
China, Japan
non-native
 
Buxus sempervirens
boxwood
southern Europe, northern Africa, western Asia
  
Caragana arborescens
Siberian peashrub
Siberia, Mongolia
  
Carpinus caucasica
Caucasian hornbeam
Europe, Caucasus
native
 
Catalpa bignonioides
catalpa
southern USA
non-native
 
Cercis siliquastrum
Judas tree
southern Europe, western Asia
non-native
 
Cornus sanguinea
European dogwood
Europe, western Asia
native
 
Cotoneaster horizontalis
rock cotoneaster
western China
non-native
 
Cydonia oblonga
quince
Caucasus
native
 
Elaeagnus angustifolia
Russian-olive
southern Europe, central Asia, 
Altai , Himalayas
native
 
Fagus orientalis
oriental beech
northwest Turkey, Caucasus, Iran
native
 
Forsythia suspensa
weeping forsythia
China
non-native
 
Fraxinus excelsior
European ash
Europe, southwestern Asia
native
 
Fraxinus pennsylvanica
green ash
USA, Canada
non-native
 
Gleditsia triachanthos
honeylocust
USA
non-native
 
Hippophae rhamnoides
seabuckthorn
Europe to China
native
 
Hibiscus syriacus
rose-of-sharon
India, China
non-native
 
Jasminum fruticans
wild jasmine
Mediterranean, Asia Minor
native
 
Junglans regia
English walnut
southeastern Europe to China
native
 
Juniperus virginiana
eastern redcedar
east and central North America
non-native
 
Koelreuteria paniculata
goldenrain tree
China, Korea, Japan
non-native
 
Ligustrum vulgare
European privet
Europe, northern Africa, southwestern Asia
native
 
Lonicera maackii
Amur honeysuckle
Manchuria, Korea
non-native
invasive
Maclura pomifera
osage orange
USA
non-native
 
Malus domestica
apple
western Asia
naturalized
naturalized nearly everywhere in the world
     
Malus orientalis
  
native
 
Melia azedarach
Chinaberry
India to China
non-native
 
Morus alba
white mulberry
China
naturalized
 
Paulownia tomentosa
empress tree
China
non-native
 
Picea orientalis
Oriental spruce
Caucasus, Asia Minor
  
Pinus brutia
Turkish pine
west of Caspian Sea to Greece
  
Pinus eldarica
Afghan pine
?Caucasus, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan
  
     
(Pinus brutia)
    
Pinus halepensis
Aleppo pine, Jerusalem pine
Europe
non-native
 
Pinus nigra
European black pine, Austrian pine
Europe, Balkans, Crimea
non-native
 
P. n. subsp.pallasiana
European black pine
Europe to Turkey
non-native
 
Pinus pinea
stone pine
Europe, Mediterranean
non-native
 
Pinus ponderosa
ponderosa pine
western North America
non-native
 
Pistacia mutica
pistachio
Caucasus
native
 
(P.atlantica var. mutica)
    
Pistacia vera
common pistachio
western Asia
non-native
 
Platanus orientalis
Oriental planetree
southeastern Europe, western Asia
native
 
Populus alba
white poplar
southern Europe to central Asia
native
 
Prunus armeniaca
apricot
Asia
considered native
 
Prunus avium
sweet cherry
Europe, western Asia
native
 
Prunus cerasifera
cherry plum, myrobalan plum
Europe, Caucasus, western Asia
non-native
 
(Prunus mirobalan)
    
Prunus cerasus
sour cherry
Europe, southwest Asia
non-native
 
Prunus domestica
common plum
Europe, southwest Asia
non-native
 
Prunus mahaleb
rock cherry
central Europe to central Asia
native
 
Prunus persica
peach
China
non-native
 
Prunus tomentosa
Nanking Cherry
China to Japan
non-native
 
Punica granatum
pomegranate
Caucasus
native
 
Pyrus communis
European pear
Europe, western Asia
non-native
 
Pyrus caucasica
Caucasian pear
Europe, western Asia
native
 
( P. communis subsp. caucasica)
    
Pyrus demetrii
pear
Caucasus
native (globally threatened endemic species)
 
Pyrus salicifolia
willowleaf pear
southeastern Europe, western Asia
native
 
Quercus castaneifolia
chestnut-leaved oak
Caucasus, Iran
  
Quercus macranthera
Caucasian oak
Caucasus, western Asia
  
Quercus pontica
Armenian oak
Caucasus, northeastern Turkey
  
Quercus robur
english oak
Europe, Caucasus, Asia minor
non-native
 
Ribes aureum
buffalo currant
North America
non-native
 
Ribes nigrum
black currant
northern Europe, northern Asia
non-native
 
Robinia pseudoacacia
black locust
USA
non-native
 
     
Rosa sp.
  
native
 
Salix babylonica
Babylon weeping willow
Asia
non-native
 
Sambucus nigra
elderberry
Europe, northwest Africa, southwest Asia, western North America
native
 
Sophora Japonica
pagoda tree
China, Korea
non-native
 
Sorbus aucuparia
mountain ash
Europe, western Asia
native
 
Spiraea x vanhouttei
  
non-native
 
Symphoricarpos albus
Snowberry
USA, Canada
non-native
 
Tamarix araratica
Salt-cedar
 
native
 
Taxus baccata
English yew
Europe, northern Africa, western Asia
native
 
Thuja occidentalis
American arborvitae
eastern USA, eastern Canada
non-native
 
Ulmus laevis
European white elm
Europe to Asia
native
 
Weigelia florida
old fashioned weigela
Japan
non-native
 
Ziziphus jujube
Chinese date
southeastern Europe to Asia
native
 

Invasive Species in Armenia

Invasive species in native and non-native ranges

2007-2008

 

Armenia, ECRC/AUA

USA, University of Montana, University of California

Argentina, Universidad Nacional de La Pamba

Turkey, Adnan Menderes University

Georgia, Institute of Botany

Romania, Institute Of Biological Research

Hungary, Insttute of Ecology and Botany

 

Studying germination in the native and non-native range of a species can provide unique insights into processes of range expansion and adaptation; however, traits related to germination have rarely been compared between native and nonnative populations. In a series of common garden experiments, we explored whether differences in the seasonality of precipitation, specifically, summer drought vs summer rain, and the amount and variation of annual and seasonal precipitation affect the germination responses of populations of an annual ruderal plant, Centaurea solstitialis, from its native range and from two non-native regions with different climates. We found that seeds from all native populations, irrespective of the precipitation seasonality of the region in which they occurred, and non-native populations from regions with dry summers displayed similarly high germination proportions and rates. In contrast, genotypes from the non-native region with predominantly summer rain exhibited much lower germination fractions and rates and ecology. Organisms transported by humans to regions where they are not native (exotics) commonly face novel selective forces, which given enough genetic variation, may trigger novel evolutionary responses. The worldwide distribution of this species encompasses environments with contrasting precipitation regimes within both native and non-native ranges. Specifically, some of the regions where C. solstitialis grows are characterized by a Mediterranean-type climate with wet winters and dry summers, whereas other regions have a precipitation regime in which most of the precipitation falls during the summer, and winters are substantially drier. In all regions, the species germinates primarily in autumn (Sheley and Larson 1994, Hierro et al. 2006, L. Khetsuriani, L. Janoian and K. Andonian unpubl.); thus, winter conditions may affect its survival. Here, by conducting a series of common garden experiments in a growth chamber, we investigated whether contrasting differences in the seasonality of precipitation and changes in surrogates for environmental quality (e.g. precipitation totals) and risk (e.g. inter-annual variation in precipitation) affect germination responses of C. solstitialis populations occurring across its native range and in two climatically distinct non-native regions.                                    

inv1

General view of the experimental field in Armenia                                                                                                         

To investigate the potential effects of seasonality of precipitation on C. solstitialis germination, we conducted three successive seed collections from populations occurring in regions exepte France, Crete and Armenia, where seeds were pooled within populations. Mean cumulative germination percentages (91 SE) of pappus and non-pappus seeds of C. solstitialis populations plotted against the coefficient of variation of winter precipitation and the probability of occurring a good winter.

Pappus seeds maintained a strong association with variation in winter precipitation (r__0.91, pB0.001), but this relationship did not hold for nonpappus seeds (r__0.36, p_0.172). In addition, germination of both pappus and non-pappus seeds were no longer correlated with the probability of good winters (r_0.44, p_0.117 and r_0.11, p_0.387, respectively). Without Argentina, the association between germination proportions of pappus seeds and variation in annual precipitation improved slightly (r__0.70, p_0.017), whereas the correlation of these proportions with the probability of good years remained non-significant (r_0.39, p_0.150). Finally, as before, germination fractions of non-pappus seeds were not correlated with any of the measures of annual risk, and germination percentages of both seed morphs were not associated with any of the measures describing environmental quality (p_0.250 in all cases).

inv2Clines in these studies corresponded to variation in general climatic patterns, such as changes in climate between northern and southern latitudes (Maron et al. 2004, 2007) or between coastal versus inland environments . In contrast to these results, our comparisons based on general climatic patterns (i.e. summer drought vs summer rain) did not detect parallel clines in germination traits for populations from native and non-native ranges, as all native populations, irrespective of the climate in which they occurred, and non-native populations from the region with a summer-drought climate displayed similarly high germination proportions and rates; whereas non-native genotypes from the region with a summer rain regime exhibited much lower germination fractions and rates. On the other hand, our comparisons based on precipitation variables, which are commonly used as surrogates for environmental quality and risk, showed that for the most abundant seed morph, seeds with a pappus, germination responses of populations in both native and non-native ranges correlated strongly with ‘risk’ experienced during the winter. Specifically, and as predicted by bethedging theory, germination fractions of pappus seeds were lower in native and non-native populations experiencing greater inter-annual variation in winter precipitation (Fig. 4). For non-pappus seeds, however, this correlation was greatly influenced by non-native genotypes from central Argentina, which are from the region with the highest variation in winter precipitation of all the studied regions and exhibited the lowest proportions of germinating seeds in all our experiments (Fig. 2_4); after removing central Argentina from analyses, there was no association between germination fractions of non-pappus seeds and winter precipitation variation. Similarly, germination fractions of both pappus and non-pappus seeds correlated with probability of occurrence of good winters only in the presence of Argentinean variables. Overall, these findings suggest that rather than general climatic patterns, the degree of risk experienced at early developmental stages could exert an important control over the germination strategy of C. solstitialis populations in both native and non-native ranges. In addition, they reveal the largely unique nature among studied populations of seed germination in nonnative genotypes from central Argentina. Germination fractions of pappus seeds were also correlated with variation in annual precipitation, suggesting that overall annual risk could also play a role in the germination behavior of C. solstitialis populations. Indeed, populations experiencing comparable variation in winter precipitation in the native and non-native range tended to display similar germination fractions for this seed type . In contrast, for non-pappus seeds the link between degree of dormancy and level of winter risk does not hold when outlier Argentinean variables are removed from analyses, providing weaker support for bet-hedging across C. solstitialis populations.

inv3Several mechanisms could be responsible for the genetic differentiation in germination traits of Californian versus Argentinean populations, including coincidental introductions, genetic drift, and natural selection operating on phenotypes formed by either a novel combination of genes  or pre-adapted genotypes (i.e. the sorting-out hypothesis _ Mu¨ller-Scha¨rer and Steinger 2004; see Leger and ice 2007 for a comprehensive discussion on these mechanisms). Outcrossing plants partition most of their genetic diversity within, rather than among, populations, which increases the probability of possessing high genetic variation upon introduction because even a few immigrants can carry much of the species’ genetic variation. 

 

 

Full article available in  Oikos 118: 529_538, 2009

doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2009.17283.x,

# 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation # 2009 Oikos

Subject Editor: Pia Mutikainen. Accepted 31 October 2008

“Germination responses of an invasive species in native and non-native ranges”

Jose´ L. Hierro, O¨zkan Eren, Liana Khetsuriani, Alecu Diaconu, Katalin To¨ro¨ k, Daniel Montesinos,

Krikor Andonian, David Kikodze, Levan Janoian, Diego Villarreal, Marı´a E. Estanga-Mollica and Ragan M. Callaway

              

Endemic Wheats of Armenia Project 2008

wheatbookArmenia, although a small country, is very rich in wild relatives of cultivars, including the ancestors and donors of such important cult ivated plants as bread cereals. The study of wild species of wheat, barley, goat grass, rye and others of the cereal crops represents a large practical interest. Progenitors of cultivars are often carriers of valuable attributes and features, such as, high drought and frost resistance, the ability to grow on relatively poor soils, and resistance to pests and disease. That is why wild relatives are valuable material for the selection of new varieties of cultivated plants. 

In addition to this, purely in practical terms, the study of wild relatives of cereal crops are of particular help in understanding the path by which many thousands of years ago the creation of the modern cultivated grasses from wild cereal crops took place, and in giving a more precise definition to the regions where the agricultural civilization arose. From that viewpoint the study of the history of domestic bread   cereals helps to shed light not only on the history of agriculture but on the history of humans in a broad sense.

Conserving the rich gene pool of wild relatives of wheat cultivars in Armenia is an urgent concern, as more and more land is disturbed by growing economic activity, land privatization, and other factors. Therefore, it is extremely important to evaluate the different Armenian populations of wheat and other cereals, and to conserve this valuable material. This can be achieved through periodic population monitoring, conservation in situ, and through collection of a seed material for preservation ex situ.

Previously, botanists have conducted numerous comprehensive studies of cereal crops, and also led archeobotanical excavations which shed light on the relatively early stages of the domestication of grasses. This current project will facilitate more comprehensive studies of the populations of wild cereal crops through the use of modern cytogenetic and molecular biology methods.

 

Brown Trout (GIZ)

Reintroduction of the Brown Trout in Armenia’s Rivers Studied by AUA Acopian Center for the Environment 

bigtroutOverfishing in the 1990s has led to a collapse of Brown Trout (Salmo trutta morpha fario) stocks throughout Armenia. This species, once available abundantly in all of Armenia’s provinces, is currently found in fewer than 20% of surveyed rivers. To determine the suitability for its reintroduction, the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment with support from GIZ, the German Organization for International Cooperation, has conducted an extensive survey of physical and chemical properties of 22 rivers and streams in 7 provinces of Armenia. 

“The results of the survey are promising,” says Dr. Karen Aghababyan, chief scientist of the AUA Acopian Center and the study’s principal investigator. “Most rivers studied are suitable for reintroduction of the species. Their oxygen and pH levels were within the range preferred by the Brown Trout, and most sites had appropriate levels of ammonia and carbon dioxide, as well as enough benthic invertebrates to serve as food for the reintroduced fish,” explains Dr. Aghababyan. 

In addition to scouting river sites, the AUA Acopian Center researchers found an appropriate brood stock with which to populate the rivers in question. To this end, the Center has collaborated with a fish farm that had Brown Trout captured wild in the Arpa River in 2009. This trout, which has not interbred with other fish species and has not gone through artificial selection, caries all the genes of the wild population and is suitable for introduction into the native stocks. 

For many decades, the Brown Trout has been a staple fish in diets worldwide. In most parts of the world, Brown Trout is interbred with local populations, resulting in fish that is genetically different from their ancestors. Very few places on Earth are home to genetically pure Brown Trout. Armenia is one of these places, its mountainous rivers providing protection from interbreeding with non-indigenous species. 

A successful reintroduction of a fish species needs more than adequate water conditions and pure breed. “We also need to ensure that the site is protected from poachers. Communities close to these fish populations have to have economic incentive to protect them. Local stewardship of the fish stock has to be worked into the reintroduction,” says Dr. Aghababyan.

Acopian Field Guide To Butterflies of Armenia

Karen

Butterflies are a significant and essential component of global biomes. They comprise about 1% of all described species on the planet and provide essential ecosystem services such as pollination and serve as prey for animal predators. In addition, they provide aesthetic value and are a valuable component of ecotourism. Currently there is no special publication or field atlas regarding the butterflies of Armenia. After having successfully published A Field Guide to Birds of Armenia, the Acopian Center at AUA has started a project to produce a similar guide for Armenia’s butterflies.

Acopian Field Guide to Butterflies of Armenia will have field identification data for every one of the 220 species recorded in Armenia up to date. The guide will also describe 15 new species and many host plants. Much of this information will be published for the first time. The guide will be the result of our long-term investigation of Armenian butterflies and, at the same time, constitutes a first step for the preparation of the Handbook of the Butterflies of Armenia. Both books will be very valuable sources for scientists, tourists and students as well as for environmental education and public awareness.

 

butterfly2

Butterfly Atlas

This project is intended to fill gaps in the National Strategy of Biodiversity Monitoring regarding the inventory and information management about Armenia’s butterflies and their habitats. At the same time it will strengthen the newly formed partnership with Butterfly Conservation Europe. The project will follow changes in species’ distribution and abundance in butterfly populations, and will examine the damages to their habitat caused by climate change and human interference. Currently, about 60% of the database is complete. In 2013 a complete database and species accounts will be prepared with all related graphics. The publication is expected by August 2014. The first ever Monitoring Atlas on Butterflies of Armenia will be regularly updated thereafter.

butterfly-monitoring-atlas

Butterfly Monitoring Atlas, sample page.

Winter Feeding of Water Birds on Yerevan Lake

  • Acopian Center for the Environment – American University of Armenia
  • Yerevan City Municipality

Winter is the most unfavorable period for birds, especially for water birds. Low temperatures, difficult access to food, and short duration of daylight hours serve as the basic negative factors in this period for the vital activity of birds.  In addition to natural difficulties, ducks in Armenia also bear anthropogenic influences – among them the construction of on-shore reservoirs, hunting, and poaching out of the hunting season.   

A large number of wild ducks gather on Yerevan Lake. According to the winter water bird counting done by specialists on Lake Sevan and Ararat valley, comparatively fewer wild ducks are left in these places, because they are constantly troubled by fishing boats on Lake Sevan and they are harassed and shot by hunters and poachers in Ararat valley. Fortunately, on Yerevan Lake these types of disturbance are absent. Nevertheless, ducks still have to fly from Yerevan Lake to the water reservoirs of Ararat valley in search of food and there they often fall by hunters’ bullets.  

Starting from 2002, we have conducted annual winter feeding for water birds in order to keep the ducks on Yerevan Lake.

lakeyerevan2 lakeyerevan1

We use special dry mixtures composed of mixed fodder of barley and oats as well as crumbled dry bread and bread products. We put the bird feeding manger approximately in the middle of the lake and feed the birds once per week. We take sacks of forage on a boat to the floating manger. In addition we survey the bird species composition and count the number of birds on the lake.

We are particularly pleased that school children join us to help us with our feeding procedure. The children, during the feeding activity, also work with trained ornithologists to learn to identify and to appreciate birds in their natural setting.

lakeyerevan3 lakeyerevan4

 

A special pleasant surprise came in 2008 when we received an initiation for a joint-duck-feeding project on Yerevan Lake with Yerevan City Hall. This has been the first case when we did not seek help from the administrative structures but the administration itself suggested working together.  The City Hall provided financial support for obtaining the forage and transporting it to Yerevan Lake.  Their support demonstrates that communities can work together in the difficult task of nature protection.

Winter Bird Count 2005 – present (conducted annually)

Acopian Center for the Environment (AUA) in cooperation with volunteers and enthusiasts from different fields, organized winter bird count in Yerevan Botanical garden. 
monitor1

Botanical garden is one of the largest green territories in Yerevan city with half-wild oases. There are several notable species of birds breeding there, such as Levant Sparrowhawk, Hobby, Long-eared Owl, Syrian Woodpecker, Golden Oriole, Common Nightingale, Greenfinch etc. Food availability compels winter bird species to come down and stay in the garden during the winter.

monitor2

The main goals of the winter bird count are:

This count gives us an opportunity to record strictly wintering bird species such us Redwing, Fieldfare, Common Goldcrest, European Siskin, etc.

Participation in winter bird count is a good experience for beginners: “Bird Identification Training”’ (ACE) students, student-zoologists and enthusiasts, who are interested in birds. This gives them an opportunity to study linear bird count technique and to improve bird identification skills. Every year about 8-12 young people join our winter bird counts.

monitor3

List of recorded bird species in Yerevan Botanical Garden 
(2005 – 2009)

1.    Eurasian Sparrowhawk
2.    Northern Goshawk
3.    Common Buzzard
4.    Common Kestrel
5.    Common Woodpigeon
6.    Rock Dove
7.    Syrian Woodpecker
8.    Middle Spotted Woodpecker
9.    European Green Woodpecker
10.    Dunnock
11.    European Robin
12.    Redwing
13.    Mistle Thrush
14.    Fieldfare
15.    Common Blackbird
16.    Common Goldcrest
17.    Blue Tit
18.    Great Tit
19.    Eurasian Jay
20.    Common Magpie
21.    Western Jackdaw
22.    Rook
23.    Hooded Crow
24.    Common Raven
25.    House Sparrow
26.    Eurasian Tree Sparrow
27.    Common Chaffinch
28.    European Greenfinch
29.    European Goldfinch
30.    European Siskin
31.    Brambling
32.    Common Linnet
33.    Hawfinch
34.    Yellowhammer
35.    Rock Bunting
monitor4

Donation – White Stork Guardian

 
Donation - White Stork Guardian
Help support a White Stork nest for a year, and protect one of Armenia’s good-luck symbols. In 2008, more than 600 pairs of storks nested in Armenia. Your $500 donation supports one nest for one year. You will receive a letter confirming your tax deductible contribution from the American University of Armenia.
Continue>>

White Stork Project

The White Stork Project focuses on using the very common and abundant White Stork as a potential bio-indicator of environmental changes in Armenia. By studying migration patterns and reproductive ecology of White Storks, it will be possible to determine potential impacts of climate change and increased pesticide/herbicide use in Armenia. The project is unique in that it uses villagers as citizen scientists or ‘Nest Neighbors’ in the data collection process. Their involvement with the research gives them a better understanding of wildlife ecology and improves the relationship between people and nesting storks. Prior to migration, Acopian Center scientists distribute calendar-questionnaires in the villages and show the villagers how to record information on stork arrival, departure and number of fledglings. After the storks have migrated, Acopian Center scientists collect the calendars and enter the information into a GIS database.

Help support this important project in Armenia by adopting your own stork nest. and becoming a White Stork Guardian.

During the spring, our staff also bands the nestlings and takes water and soil samples in stork feeding areas for later analysis. The Acopian Center for the Environment launched a survey on pesticide use in the Ararat Valley after the first results from soil and water sampling indicated the presence of pesticide contamination. Substantial information on almost 1000 confirmed nest sites in Armenia has been collected through 2009.

 

Saving the Armenian Gull

gullislands1The Armenian Gull breeds in Lakes Sevan and Arpi in Armenia. At Lake Sevan it breeds on “Gull Islands” which, as a result of the constant lowering of the water level in the lake, joined the coast, becoming a peninsula, by the end of 1990s. This opened the breeding area to predators and domestic cattle. Predators such as foxes and stray dogs caused much harm to the Gulls by eating their eggs and nestlings. As for domestic animals, they trampled the eggs as they wandered around the island.

The island became open to tourists who frightened the birds and raised panic among them. The human disturbances had the most fatal consequences: eggs were getting too cold during the first period of nesting and in the period of mass hatching the frightened birds were leaving their nests. The parents, in their futile search for their nestlings, were pecking the other lost nestlings to death.    

gullislands2

Armenian Gull

The only way to rescue the Armenian Gull was to turn its nesting grounds into an island again. For that purpose, it was necessary to remove the isthmus, digging a channel between the island and the coast. Unfortunately, the corresponding government departments didn’t take an active part, though they were well aware of the urgent need of isolation of the nesting place.

gullislands3

Making of the channel    

Thus, on 14 May, 1999, the project workers, equipping themselves with the proper equipment, dug an 18 meter wide breach that was 0.8 to 2.3 meters deep, forming a strait between the land and Gull Island.

In the same year the Center organized a pilot monitoring program of the nesting place of the Armenian Gull on “Gull Island” which testified that our efforts were not in vain. The eggs and nestlings were saved! As a result, an entire generation of Armenian Gulls was conserved.

Each year before the beginning of the nesting season we visit the island and measure the depth and width of the strait in order to determine if we need to step in again.

gullislands4
The Channel

Vultures of Armenia

Why is it important to study vultures in the Caucasus?

The Caucasus Mountains of Armenia are a biogeographic bridge between Europe and Asia. The area is home to a range of raptors (hawks, eagles, and falcons, etc.) including four species of Old World Vultures, Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus), Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus), Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), and Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus).  Determining and tracking the conservation status of Armenian vulture populations is important because they are excellent “biological indicators” of the health of Armenia’s natural and human-dominated landscapes.

vultures1

What kinds of work and research are we doing?

We conduct surveys of three vulture species in Armenia, and we analyze, publish, and make available to government and conservation groups data on the distribution, abundance, breeding biology, and conservation status of these species.

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Griffon Habitat Southern Armenia. Click on photo above to enlarge.

What is the goals of our vulture research?

Our overall goal is to determine the conservation status of Armenian vulture populations. We are detailing the distribution, abundance, and reproductive success of Armenian vultures. It helps to identify important areas for raptor conservation in Armenia and establish long-term monitoring schemes for vultures and endangered raptors in Armenia.

Results

Bearded Vulture

There are 8-10 pairs of Bearded Vulture in Armenia. The population of Bearded Vultures in Armenia is stable.

Griffon Vulture

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There are 35-40 pairs of Griffon Vultures in 7-9 colonies. Northern population of the species is stable, while the population of Southern Armenia has a tendency to increase.

Egyptian Vulture

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There are 40-60 pairs of Egyptian Vultures in Armenia. The population of this species in Armenia stays stable.

Threats

The most serious threat for all the species is a human disturbance, principally from shooting and trapping of adults and the capture of the nestlings, so that the birds can be sold, either as taxidermy specimens or as live birds. Second serious threat is a lack of food (especially in central parts of Armenia), since number of whild ungulates has declined while the changes in the livestock husbandry reduced number of carcasses of livestock in the field. 

The results of our work were used for the new edition of the Red Data Book of Armenia and would be useful for the future environmental assessment procedures.

Monitoring of Raptors in the Forest of Aragats Mountain – 2005-2009

In 2005 we have started a pilot survey of raptors at the forest area of Aragats Mountain, with following objectives:

We started the project with full involvement of two students Maro Kochinyan and Hayk Harutyunyan and with occasional involvement of several younger students – volunteers of the “Birds of Armenia” project.

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Forest area of Aragats mountain

 

The forest area of Aragats is rather small (about 2 sq km) but includes almost all diurnal forest raptor species found in Armenia.

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Nestlings of Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo)

 

Particularly we found the following species:

We continue annual use of this place to train the students and to track Raptors life.
The results of the survey were published in Russian Conservation News No.39 Summer 2005

The effect of pesticides on the populations of Peregrine Falcon in Meghri District of Southern Armenia (2008)

Acopian Center for the Environment (AUA) with the support of Peregrine Fund and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 2008 has conducted a survey of Peregrine Falco in Meghri district.

peregrine-mapRed field – study area

Objectives:

To check the current condition of population (number of breeding pairs) and reproductive success (number of fledglings) to analyze the trend and its possible causes to inspire local community about importance of Raptors through their involvement in the monitoring of the Peregrine Falcon.

 

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Peregrine Falcon оn the nesting cliff

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Peregrine Falcon nesting cliffs in the semidesert and forest areas

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Peregrine Falcon nesting cliffs in the semidesert and forest areas

Results:

From all the six known Peregrine nests in Meghri region (in 1998-2004) only one successful pair with two fledglings was found, one site was occupied with two adults, but there were no young, and another site with only one adult bird. All other sites were unoccupied.

Analyzing these data and comparing it with previous ones the decline of Peregrine population in Meghri region becomes obvious. We assume that the main reason for the decline is the poisoning, such as sedimentary reservoirs of the copper, molybdenum and gold mines; use of pesticides for agriculture; forest management in frames of pest control.

During the whole project we worked with the local people from Meghri forestry administration and local enthusiasts. This co-operation helped us to do the data collection more effectively and to explain some details about poisoning and poaching.

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Researchers of Meghri fores

Monitoring of Long-Legged Buzzard Populations in Armenia

Birds of prey are excellent environmental indicators and flagship species for natural-resource conservation. Increasing of Armenian agriculture and other blanches of industry can have a negative impact to environment. To track the possible influence of industry to our nature we would like to start monitoring of subpopulations of model species in some regions of Armenia.

As a species to be monitored we have chosen Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) because it is most common rodent-eating bird that breeds in whole Armenia. 

We have conducted mapping of nests, and survey of reproductive success, as well as we have investigated their feeding, reproductive success and analyze collected data on GIS Arc View.

The project includes education of local inhabitants about importance of rodent-eating raptors for agriculture and nature ecosystems. During the project, those students, who have completed BITC courses in Acopian Center for the Environment, have been trained in the field data collection. Two of the students, Grigor Janoyan and Tsovinar Hovanisyan have completed their Bachelor and Master’s degrees on the topic.

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Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus, outskirts of Gusana village, Shirak region of Armenia.

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Map of study area of the Long-legged Buzzard Buteo rufinus in Armenia

Results:

Our study shows that the density of Long-legged Buzzard varies in different parts of Armenia. For example, the mean distance between the nests (nearest neighbor distance) is 1.98±0,19km (n=10) in Vedi district, while in Vayots Dzor region the mean distance is 3.04±0.3km (n=5); t=3.14, p=0.008. The difference in density seems correlated with steepness of surrounding area, since the Vedi district is generally more flat, than the Vayots Dzor region, which indicates that probably Long-legged Buzzards prefer habitats with less steepness of slopes. Most probably it depends on hunting technique of Long-legged Buzzard, which catches the prey on the ground dropping down from 5-10m. The other limiting factor is cliff availability, since in Armenia Long-legged Buzzards breed only on cliffs. Although LLB does not show dependence on the height of the cliffs and can place the nest on the height from 2 to 30m, it does not breed on trees, like in some parts of its area in Siberia.

The concluding results of the study were presented as a poster on the International Raptor Conference in autumn 2009 in Switzerland. We continue monitoring and conservation of Long-legged Buzzards in Armenia.

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In the frames of the study a GIS shape file was developed, covering all cliffs and rocky massifs of the entire territory of Armenia.

Relevant publication:

Some habitat preferences of Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) in Armenia
Hovanisyan, T., Janoyan, G., Schaefer, M., Aghababyan, K.
// 7th Conference of the European Ornithologists’ Union 2009. Zurich, Switzerland, 21-26 Aug 2009.

Levant Sparrowhawk Pilot Survey 2009 In Armenia

ACE (American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia)

ACCL (Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Pennsylvania, USA)

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Red fields – study areas

Acopian Center for the Environment (AUA) in cooperation with Acopian Center for the Conservation Learning (Hawk Mountain Sanctuary) in 2009 there was conducted a pilot nest survey of Levant Sparrowhawk – one of the least known Western Palearctic raptors.

Several long term trips were organized to Aragats Mt and Meghri area, Yerevan city parks were surveyed as well on a frequent basis.

Field trips took substantial part of the project during April – August.

The main aims of the survey were:

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The surveys have successfully resulted in overall 17 breeding sites/pairs. 
Click on photo above to enlarge.

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During the surveys a nest searching technique was developed and tested as most suitable from few other methods tried.

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For all of the surveyed sites and nests there were recorded various parameters, such as nesting site GIS data, habitat description, behavior of breeding birds, nestlings and fledglings, interaction with other species and various other ecological information. Data on food was collected and taken few video footages and a number of photographs.

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The information collected in 2009 helped to achieve initial objectives of the pilot project and will significantly contribute to the future surveys of the Levant Sparrowhawk in Armenia.

Distribution, abundance and habitat preferences of the lesser spotted eagles of Armenia

Acopian Center for the Environment 2007-2009

The Lesser Spotted Eagle (Aquila pomarina) inhabits almost all deciduous forest regions of Armenia. Due to economic and energy crisis and following economic growth in Armenia from 1990-s until now the land use pattern and the forest management in Armenia was strongly altered. The mentioned factors might have a negative impact on the large forest raptor species since they are more vulnerable and sensitive to changes in their habitat. Considering that the following objectives were chosen for particular study:

  1. to refine knowledge on distribution and abundance of Lesser Spotted Eagle in Armenia
  2. to study habitat preferences of the species
  3. to identify current and potential threats for the species
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Foraging Lesser Spotted Eagle

Results

Based on the data collected during 1998-2007 it was possible to conclude the following:

  1. Distances between neighboring nests are 14. 2 and 14. 3 km (based on 4 nests)
  2. The average distance between the nest and limits of the hunting territory of a pair is 4.05 ±0.39 km
  3. The maximum possible population size of the species in the country, is preliminary estimated as about 48-52 pairs

The species in Armenia is facing to a number of direct and indirect threats, such as lack of enforced regulation in use of pesticides, poaching, human disturbance during breeding season and habitat loss.

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Habitat of the Lesser Spotted Eagle (left) and its nest on the oak tree (right)

Outcomes

  1. The article regarding the subject was published. K. Aghababyan, V. Ananian, S. Tumanyan. 2008. To the Distribution and Abundance of Lesser Spotted Eagles in Armenia. // Research and Conservation of the Greater and Lesser Spotted Eagles in Northern Eurasia. Materials 5th Conference on Raptors of Northern Eurasia Ivanovo, February 4-7, 2008
  2. Several amateur ornithologists were trained in data collection and analysis and one of them, Tatevik Tamazyan, a student of Biological Department of Yerevan State University defended a Master’s Thesis on the subject “The Ecology of Lesser Spotted Eagles in Armenia”
  3. The results of the project were used for the new edition of the Red Data Book of Armenia and would be useful for the future forest management planning and environmental assessment procedures.   

Hawk Mountain Acopian Learning Center Raptor Conservation Training

To date 4 trainees from Armenia have participated in this program. They include Karen Aghababyan, Vasil Ananian, Grigor Janoyan and Siranush Tumanyan.

Please visit the website: http://www.hawkmountain.org/

International Raptor Count

Autumn Migration – Batumi, Georgia 2008-2009

Raptors are essential part of the wildlife, indicating the health of ecosystem. Change in the Raptors’ number might indicate different type of environmental issues. One of the easiest ways to get imagination of the abundance of different raptor species is to count them on migration since they are getting together on special areas, called “bottleneck sites”. 

batumi3One of such sites is situated close to Batumi in Western Georgia (Ajaria), on the Black Sea coast, which is close to another raptor counting place – Borchka in Eastern Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of raptors fly through the area during autumn migration (from late August to October). 

In 2008 the activity involved 28 volunteers and student trainees from Belgium, Holland, Georgia and Armenia. In 2009 other countries have joined the initiative, such as Turkey, France, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Georgia etc. Apart from participation in the count ACE also took part in organizing and implementing the “Young Birdwatchers Exchange Program”, which aims to bring together birdwatchers from a number of countries. In frames of this project ACE has distributed a recruitment announcement in Armenia, interviewed applicants and selected the most appropriate candidates. Before leaving to Batumi the selected applicants were provided with preliminary training in Armenia, both in auditorium and in the field. ACE provides each of the local candidates with a copy of “A Field Guide to Birds of Armenia”, a pair of binoculars and a spotting scope for use throughout the count.

batumi2Upon arrival to Batumi, Karen Aghababyan as a leader teacher gives an intensive raptor identification course for the first three days for all the students of “Young Birdwatchers Exchange Program”.
 
To teach the student ACE is using a raptor Section of the Bird Identification Training Course (BITC).

Some Results

During the counting period (by 6-22 /Sep/2008), there were counted 815374 raptors in average more than 67000 per day. We had huge number of Honey Buzzard, Black Kite, Montagu’s Harrier, Booted Eagle, Levant Sparrowhawk, etc., and also Snake Eagle, Osprey, Lesser Spotted and Steppe Eagle, etc.

batumi1During the count of 2009 the Crested Honey Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) was recorded, the second time for Caucasus.

More detailed info you can find at www.batumiraptorcount.org

 

 

 

 

 

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European Breeding Bird Atlas Monitoring

This project will fill gaps in the National Strategy of Biodiversity Monitoring regarding the inventory and information management on breeding birds of Armenia. It will also provide input to the European Breeding Bird Atlas, where Armenia is underrepresented. The European Bird Census Council recently appointed Dr. Karen Aghababyan as the National Coordinator of the European Breeding Bird Atlas 2. The project will trace the 3 long-term changes in breeding bird species’ distribution and abundance, as well as their habitat degradation caused by climate change and human-induced threats.

Currently, Armenia is divided into 10km by 10km grids. The field data collection routes are set up. The counting methodology is piloted. Over the next four years, Dr. Aghababyan will organize large-scale fieldwork involving hundreds of professionals and volunteers. The European Bird Census Council will use the country-specific atlases to compile a European-wide atlas, the EBBA2. With the massive amount of bird data collected, the EBBA2 will become one of the most comprehensive biodiversity data sets in the world.

 

Birds in my Backyard

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The Acopian Center for the Environment sponsors a conservation-education competition called ‘Birds in my Backyard’ that encourages school children to build birdfeeders, observe the birds, and take a photo or draw a picture of a bird that comes to the feeder.

Support this program designed especially for Armenian children.

Students can win prizes and participate in the ‘Sun Child Environmental Festival’, another event that the Acopian Center for the Environment actively supports. This festival puts special emphasis on the youth and children’s participation in discussing current environmental challenges in the region. Besides competitive film screenings and photo exhibitions, hands-on activities such as field trips, tree planting and trash collection take place regularly.

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“The competition is more than a competition; its aim is education. It offers children the opportunity to look at nature from a different angle. I hope that these children will become students of the American University of Armenia when they grow up and will continue to protect nature.” —- Dr. Jennifer Lyman, Ph D.

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Past winners of the ‘Birds in my Backyard’ competition.

Bird Identification Training Course

The Acopian Center’s ‘Bird Identification Training Course’ (BITC) was initiated in 2004 with a group of 15 students. Since then, over 450 people have participated in this course. Classes are in three languages (Armenian, English, Russian) and conducted for local as well as foreign students. Anyone interested is welcome to attend. You do not have to be a student at AUA to attend. The classes are held in a friendly and enthusiastic atmosphere. We have had students of all ages –  from 12 to 68 years old!

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Course participants learn how to identify the different bird species in Armenia and how to observe them in nature. The course is aimed at people of all skill levels. We have a Beginner course and an Advanced course. Each consists of 30 lessons in which the students learn to identify at least 100 to 200 different bird species that occur in Armenia. The Beginner course has three field trips (to Lake Sevan, Lori region, and Aragats Mountain) and the Advanced course also has three field trips (to Armash fish-farming ponds, Noravank gorge and Dilijan forest) where birds studied in the classroom will be seen in their natural habitat. We provide binoculars and other optical equipment for observation during the field trips.

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Classes are held once per week for 1 hour, from September 18 to May 30.

At the completion of the course, and after passing a test, each student will receive a certificate that they have completed the course. And the best students in the class will get a complimentary copy of the Armenian version of “A Field Guide to Birds of Armenia”.

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Prospects for Sustainable Development of Small Hydro-Power Sector in Armenia

Date: February 20, 2014
Event Type: Seminar, Public Discussion
Speakers: See program
Venue: American University of Armenia

The AUA Acopian Center for the Environment in partnership with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Norsk Energi, the Norwegian consultancy leading a technical assistance to the small hydro-power sector in Armenia, organized a public event reviewing the results of a two-year project called “Sustainable Hydro-Power Development for Energy Security.” The project was grant funded by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry to strengthen the small hydro-power sector while improving its environmental performance in Armenia. The outputs of the project’s working group are publicly available at www.smallhydroarmenia.org. In attendance at the event were more than 60 representatives of civil society, OSCE-supported Aarhus Centers, Armenian government, private industry, and the diplomatic corps.

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The governmental and diplomatic corps attending the event. From left, Areg Galstyan, RA Deputying Minister of Energy and Natural Resources; Simon Papyan, RA Deputy Minister Nature Protection; Artashes Bakhshyan, RA Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration; Andrey Sorokin, OSCE Ambassador to Armenia; Tim Straight, Norwegian Honorary Counsel to Armenia; Lukas Gasser, Swiss Ambassador to Armenia; and Nadia Lichtenberger, Deputy Head of Mission of the German Embassy.

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Dr. Bruce Boghosian welcoming participants to the public event on small hydropower plants

Small Hydro Power Plants and Risk Management

Date: February 13, 2014
Event Type: Seminar
Speaker: Tigran Parvanyan, International Finance Corporation
Venue: American University of Armenia

Tigran Parvanyan, IFC, at a seminar co-sponsored by the AUA College of Science and Engineering and the Acopian Center for the Environment. Mr. Parvanyan spoke about small hydro power technologies used in Armenia and issues related to managing risks with these power plants. 

Armenia’s Draft Law on Environmental Impact Assessment

Date: January 27, 2014
Event Type: Public Discussion
Speakers: Alen Amirkhanian, Simon Papyan, Azganush Drnoyan, Artur Grigoryan, Adrianan Jordanova
Venue: American University of Armenia

The American University of Armenia’s Acopian Center for the Environment (AUA ACE), in cooperation with the Republic of Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection and the World Bank, organized a public discussion on the country’s Draft Law on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA).

The Republic of Armenia is currently considering a Draft Law on Environmental Impact Assessment that promises to offer advances in the way environmental impact assessments are done for mining, construction, agriculture, urban planning, and other projects. The legislation also intends to bring the national legislation in compliance with Armenia’s international legal obligations, including the Espoo and Aarhus Conventions as well as the Kyiv Protocol.

First Deputy Minister of Nature Protection Mr. Simon Papyan, who led the working group that drafted the law, presented the aims and the status of the current draft. Two members of this working group, Ms. Azganush Drnoyan and Mr. Artur Grigoryan, also presented on the details and innovations of the current draft legislation. In addition, the World Bank’s Lead Environmental Specialist, Ms. Adriana J. Damianova, presented her view on ways in which the current draft will address some of the concerns about the approval of mining projects.

A major advance in the current draft is that it empowers public authorities to define the scope of work for EIAs. This is in sharp contrast to the current law, in which the applicant proposes a scope and authorities have no legal basis to demand otherwise. The draft law also introduces new approaches to the valuation of environmental harm resulting from economic activity. It also paves paths for more effective public participation and determination of affected communities.

Present in the audience were more than 60 environmental experts, representatives of international development organizations, environmental NGOs, and the concerned public. A key message emerging from the in-depth discussion was that the draft law, in spite of its strides, still has gaps that need to be addressed.

Mr. Papyan encouraged the concerned public to present their comments in writing for consideration. He and other experts in the audience explained that there is still time to amend the Draft Law even if it has already been presented to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Agriculture and Environment.

The current Draft Law was proposed after Republic of Armenia President Serzh Sargsyan vetoed an earlier version in 2012 citing that “the standards for assessment of the impact of economic activities is not adequately substantiated.”[1] Many environmentalists also opposed the vetoed version.

No concrete timetable exists on when the current Draft Law will be adopted by the National Assembly for final approval and sent to the President for signature. It is, however, widely anticipated that the National Assembly will act on the Draft Law in its Spring session.

AUA President Dr. Bruce M. Boghosian and AUA ACE Director Alen Amirkhanian welcomed the participants in their opening remarks. “It is my hope that AUA can become a space to discuss environmental issues openly and rigorously. For this, we need government, business, international organizations, and civil society to come together and exchange ideas and views. This will only strengthen our ability as a country to develop sound approaches and policies,” said Amirkhanian.

 

Video recording of the event is available here.

To download individual speaker’s texts, presentations, and videos, please click here.

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AUA President Dr. Bruce M. Boghosian offers his welcoming remarks.

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Environmental experts, representatives of international development organizations, environmental NGOs, and members of the concerned public were present at the event.

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Artur Grigoryan, Member of the working group for developing the Draft EIA law.

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From left to right: Artur Grigoryan, Azganush Drnoyan, Adriana Jordanova Damianova, and Simon Papyan.

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Adriana Jordanova Damianova, Lead Environmental Specialist and Program Team Leader in Europe and Central Asia Region, the Sustainable Development Department, The World Bank

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Azganush Drnoyan, Expert of the Environmental Expertise, member of working group for developing the Draft EIA law

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Alen Amirkhanian, Director of the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment

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First Deputy Minister of Nature Protection Simon Papyan discusses the Draft Law on EIA.

 

[1]www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/pp/compliance/MoP4decisions/Armenia/toARM_IV9a_CC37.pdf