Viva for Armenia with "My Forest Armenia" (photos)

Long-term strategy: every day is Earth Day. For 19 years, Viva, which has been implementing environmental projects in different regions of Armenia, has been making consistent efforts to ensure "green thinking". The basis of long-term programs is not only environmental protection in the classical sense, by organizing tree planting, but also the fight against global problems: desertification, landslides, and increasing water resources through forest creation. Video

Viva and the "My Forest Armenia" NGO are making serious efforts for the same goal. What results have been recorded during the three-year period of cooperation? By the way, this is the period during which seedlings require the most care. There is an important achievement: in high mountainous areas, where the movement of even four-wheel drive vehicles is limited, it was possible to ensure the desired result of the adhesion of seedlings, guaranteeing the formation of a forest in the future. When selecting the areas, the humidity of the area, the amount of precipitation, location, and altitude were taken into account, thus assessing the possibilities of forming a forest in the area.

“Businesses have a long way to go in living in harmony with nature and can certainly play a huge role in restoring nature. Earth Day is a great opportunity to remember our responsibility towards Mother Nature, but it is important that we carry that responsibility on all other days of the year as well. Consistency is the most important key to success,” said Lilit Martirosyan, Deputy Director of the environmental NGO “My Forest Armenia.”

In order to organize afforestation and reforestation works in Armenia, which has only 11% forest cover, in 2022 Viva created a nominal forest in the territory of Jrashen community. The company's employees volunteered for the work. In the following years, afforestation works were carried out in two communities not guaranteed against landslides: Urasar and Lernajur. By the way, the labor force of the local population was used in all places. In total, about 38,000 trees were planted.

Over the past three years, significant work has been done in three communities of Lori region through volunteering and providing employment to the population in the communities. 75% of the main employees of the environmental non-governmental organization "My Forest Armenia" are residents of Lori region. In all areas of afforestation, exclusively local forest tree species were planted: wild pear, apple, oak, pine, maple, etc., the seedlings of which were grown in the organization's nurseries. As a labor force, up to 200 employees were recruited from the communities each season.