The Center for Ecological-Nooshpere Studies (Eco-Centre) in Yerevan has for years performed outstanding research and analysis related to critical areas of Armenia’s ecology and environment. As a non-profit NGO established in 1989, the Eco-Centre has earned an international reputation for original work on critical environmental issues in both Armenia and the southern Caucuses region.
But one of the major challenges facing the Eco-Centre is the difficulty in obtaining reagents required for the analysis of certain samples, mainly due to the blockade imposed by neighboring Turkey and Azerbaijan. This presents a problem for air transport of reagents, resulting in time-consuming delays, costly transportation, and even a ban on many reagents that are forbidden to be transported by air. The center has appealed for the donation of an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF), laboratory or portable models to enable the on-site analysis of soil and ores. (No reagents are needed for XRF analysis and there are no XRF spectrometers in Armenia.) Researchers there have also expressed the need for a dedicated mercury analyzer (as there are many applications that can be done with such an instrument, including the analysis of children’s blood samples) as well as used equipment in working condition.
The Eco-Centre has multi-disciplinary teams of scientists dealing with environmental geochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, biomonitoring, radioecology, bioenergy, mapping of natural resources, geopathogenic zones, data bases in environmental protection, and other analytical areas. With 52 employees, it is accredited by the state and equipped with a variety of analytical equipment. Much of their work is performed on a contract basis funded by international organizations like NATO, UNESCO, NFSAT (National Foundation for Science and Technology), CRDF (Center for Research and Development Foundation), IAEA (International Atomic Energy Administration), USAID, and others. Their work is under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences.
Projects in Armenia address public health and nature protection/preservation issues involving toxic chemicals in the water, soil, air, and food, and in the mining, agricultural, manufacturing, and energy sectors, as well as the protection of nature and forests. In October 2010, the Eco-Centre’s director, Dr. Armen Saghatelyan, collaborated on a first-of-its-kind science festival in Yerevan organized by Dr. Gayane Poghosyan of the State Committee on Science, with financial support from the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association, Inc. and other organizations. The Science Festival, it is hoped, will become an annual tradition, contributing to a greater number of individuals—especially youth—interested in science.
For more information on the Eco-Centre, visit website www.ecocentre.am. Individuals who would like to help the Eco-Centre and are in a position to obtain such equipment for a tax-deductible donation should contact Jack Medzorian, Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association, by emailing jmedzorian@aol.com or writing to: Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association, c/o Jack Medzorian, PO Box 382591, Cambridge, MA 02238-2591.
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