"Green mindset", the fight against landslides and creation of jobs in the communities։ Viva and “My Forest Armenia” NGO are creating a forest again

As a result of climate change, steep slopes devoid of trees and robust vegetation, can cause landslides. Years ago, some parts of the Lori region characterized by mountainous landscape, felt the effects of nature's unpredictability. One of them happened is the Lernajur community, in the high mountains. A forest is now created in late fall. This is crucial to combat landslides and desertification in Armenia, which has only 11% forest cover.

Viva has been actively implementing environmental projects since its launch. Three years ago, it started cooperating with “My Forest Armenia” NGO. At the heart of this partnership are important goals: to strengthen the idea of coming together around a “green mindset”, to expand the forest cover in Armenia, thus preventing landslides and desertification, and to promote the preservation of water resources, as well as to create jobs in communities. 

Large-scale work has been done in three communities of the Lori region. In 2022, a registered forest was founded in the Jrashen community, with the participation of employees of Viva who volunteered to plant trees․ Later works continued in two other communities, Urasar and Lernajur, both affected by landslides. In all the cases, local population was involved as workforce.

“Our goal is to create a forest. Forests are large ecosystems that perform regulatory functions and prevent many natural disasters. Landslides don’t happen every year, but when they do, they cause huge damage. Take the same Urasar, where we planted last year, there are still traces of landslides. The forest we create with Viva will create the environment protecting the soil and the area from large and small natural disasters. This cooperation is important for us not only because Viva spreads the values ​​of environmental stewardship, responsible approach among its employees, customers and population, but because permanent cooperation also allows us to plan our work in the long term,” said Lilith Martirosyan, Deputy Director of “My Forest Armenia”.

When selecting the areas, the humidity of the area, location, survival rate of the trees and the possibility of becoming a forest are considered. This fall, “My Forest Armenia” worked on an area of 100 hectares in Lernajur. Bareroot and open-root seedlings were planted including wild pear, apple, oak and other tree species. 100 workers were recruited from local communities as workforce.