No tree cuttings in Yerevan until at least February

The Yerevan City Hall has decided that tree cuttings planned for this fall in the capital will not be carried out. Kristina Vardanyan, a member of the City Council’s National Progress faction and former deputy director of the Greenery and Environmental Protection organization, informed Sputnik Armenia about this.

Since last year, Yerevan has initiated a program to replace outdated and non-viable trees with new species. The faction has approached the court regarding the fact that the tree cuttings were being conducted without the legally required environmental impact assessment conclusions. The court has suspended all tree cuttings planned under the city hall’s program to replace “trees nearing the end of their lifespan and completely deformed trees with more aesthetic and valuable trees” until a decision is made. The first hearing has been scheduled for February 4, 2025.

“We filed a lawsuit immediately after the cuttings began. Two claims have been accepted, and we are still working on the other two to file again. The main demand is to ensure that the city is not left completely without managed risks, because trees are the main managers of risks in southern cities (providing shade, emissions reduction, noise control),” Vardanyan emphasized.

The Greenery and Environmental Protection Non-Governmental Organization began cutting linden trees in various streets of the capital in March. According to the city authorities, the cut non-viable linden trees were replaced with species such as Albizia julibrissin, soapberry, and sakura. The tree cuttings did not proceed smoothly, as representatives of opposition factions in the Yerevan City Council, former officials, and experts complained that cutting trees and planting new species would not yield the desired results, and for at least decades, there would be no opportunity to shelter from the sun’s rays.

Armen Begoyan, director of the Greenery and Environmental Protection NGO, advised dissatisfied citizens to walk with umbrellas. “The whole world is currently talking about heat islands and how cities are becoming hotter, turning into thermal islands. Meanwhile, we in Yerevan have five times less green space than normal. How can we cut down mature trees that have already adapted to the environment when we have an enormous water problem because the city is heading towards desertification?” the council member said to the media.

Vardanyan believes that although the tree cuttings in Yerevan's center this spring have already greatly harmed the city, the court claim and the suspension of the program have prevented the situation from repeating in other streets. “Four out of a planned fourteen streets have been cut down,” notes the media interlocutor. The expert hopes that as a result of the ongoing judicial process, tree cuttings planned for next spring will also not be implemented. The court’s decision may allow for negotiations with the city authorities to resolve the issue professionally, replacing the trees using the globally accepted methodologies, and not as was done this spring on Tumanyan, Sayat-Nova, Alek Manoukian, and Moscow streets, as well as in some streets of the Shengavit and Zeytun administrative districts.