More information

Data sources:

(D1)Main indicators specially protected areas by categories and years provided by the ArmStat – The Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia

Overall, protected areas are implemented under four different national desginations: (1) state reserves (Khosrov, Shikahogh and Erebuni); (2) national parks (Sevan, Dilijan, Lake Arpi and Arevik); (3) state preserves (a total of 27 state preserves); and (4) natural monuments (a total of 232 natural monuments).

A number of legal acts on flora and fauna, forests and protected areas have been developed and adopted with the aim of ensuring biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in the country. In addition, an action plan for implementing the programme of work on protected areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2012-2020, has also been developed with the following priorities: establishing and strengthening national and regional systems of protected areas and developing site-level management plans for state-owned reservations (MNP, 2012).

The period 2009-2014 was a breakthrough in the designation of national protected areas. Since then the focus has been mainly on the establishment of state preserves and national parks. In that context, Dilijan State Reserve has been developed as a national park, and the territorial share of the national parks in the nationally designated protected areas has been substantially increased.

Protected areas are state property and are managed by state organisations. In Armenia the management of protected areas is carried out by the Bioresources Management Agency of the Ministry of Nature Protection of the Republic of Armenia, Agriculture Scientific Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Armenia and the A. I. Alikhanyan National Scientific Laboratory (the Yerevan Institute of Physics). However, the natural monuments, which are located on both state and community property, are still not properly managed due to the absence of respective management mechanisms (MNP, 2012). 

On the other hand, the administrative organisation of some particular protected areas has also been modified in accordance with the needs of particular protected areas. For instance, the charter of Sevan National Park and the Managing Council of the Sevan National Park State Non-commercial Organisation was established and is chaired by Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister. The main objective of the Council is to improve and strengthen control of the restoration of ecosystems of Lake Sevan and its littoral areas, as well as to make the process of national park-related decision-making more transparent (MNP,2014).