New Project Launched for Land Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation

Posted on July, 02 2025

In 2025, a cooperation agreement was signed between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WWF-Armenia to launch the project titled “Land restoration and improvement of ecosystem services in Armenia through the use of the biodiversity of fruit and nut tree species.” The project is implemented by WWF-Armenia and financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNEP.

As part of the official launch, the inception workshop and first steering committee meeting of the project took place on June 25–26. The events brought together key stakeholders, including the Task Manager of the GEF Biodiversity and Land Degradation Unit of UNEP Lesya Nikolaeva, the Acting Director of “Hayantar” SNCO of the Ministry of Environment Vigen Chilingaryan, Deputy Head of the Eco-Patrol Service Murad Nurijanyan, and Secretary General of the Service Lusine Aleksanyan, Director of Biodiversity Assessment at the Raphaël Foundation Agnès Fonteneau, Director of WWF-Armenia Levon Aghasyan, the Project Coordinator Armen Danielyan (WWF), along with other environmental and forestry experts, representatives of national and international organizations, beneficiary communities, and other key stakeholders.

The workshop and meeting provided an opportunity to align on the objectives of the project, implementation framework, stakeholder engagement mechanisms, and expected outcomes. The initiative aims to support the restoration of degraded landscapes and improve ecosystem services in Armenia, leveraging the biodiversity of native fruit and nut tree species as a nature-based solution to enhance ecological resilience and sustainable land use.

© WWF Armenia