Yegparian: CNF

The Caucasus Nature Fund is a relatively new arrival on what’s turned out to be an even more ancient landscape than even many of us “natives” knew.

If our homeland’s ecology is destroyed, we won’t survive very long.

CNF is a foundation that aims to preserve the plant and animal life (flora and fauna) found south of the Caucasus Mountains and extending into Western Armenia. This is one of the world’s “biodiversity hotspots,” where there is a high density and variety of life. In particular, because of the area’s geology, it is blessed with species that are found nowhere else because they were wiped out by the last ice age (10,000-12,000 years ago). The Caucasus Mountains presented an impassable obstacle to the glaciers, so that in our homeland, along with what are today known as Georgia, Azerbaijan, and the northernmost parts of Iran, these biota survived.

As with so many other places and their plant and animal life, many of these species are endangered because of human encroachment and activity. Enter CNF. The foundation started with a $10 million grant from the German Entwicklungsbank and has since raised another $10 million. These moneys are in an endowment fund with the “interest” generated used to pay for its activities. Primarily, they supplement rangers’ salaries and buy them basic equipment (jeeps, binoculars, etc.) so they can do their jobs well—prevent the poaching of endangered species, or cutting of trees in off-limit areas, and so on.

CNF is tasked with working in the three main states of the South Caucasus—Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. They are precluded from working in “disputed areas,” so Abkhazia, Artsakh, and South Ossetia are off limits. Currently, the governments of Georgia and Armenia are working with CNF, but Azerbaijan has yet to come aboard (what a surprise—a floundering petro-state run by a dynastic president is leery of working with an environmental preservation group).

Just under 10 percent of Armenia’s surface area is protected—for comparison, 15 percent of the U.S. is, with a huge portion of that being found in Alaska—so we’re not doing too badly. But help is needed and CNF’s mission is to provide the basics, matching what money the governments will put into projects. Their current goal is to be involved in “15 parks by 2015,” all of them in Armenia and Georgia.

This is very important work, and not many of our organizations have paid enough attention to it. If our homeland’s ecology is destroyed, we won’t survive very long. Much work needs to be done and CNF is in touch with Armenia Tree Project, which works on the arboreal aspects of the environment. They have also contacted the Tufenkian Foundation to discuss ecotourism possibilities, another very important way of generating vested interest in the local population to protect their environment, since it becomes a source of income. Of course, these relationships are in addition to working with the relevant government agencies. I’m kind of excited by the possibilities!

Nothing comes for free, however, and CNF hopes to raise some funds from the Armenian community. The ultimate goal for their endowment fund is $35 million, so they’re more than halfway there. They hope to raise about $3 million from our community. Of course, when I heard this from David Morrison, CNF’s executive director (a retired international lawyer), my concern was what everyone else is probably thinking: “Will any of that money go to Azerbaijan when/if they partner with CNF?” Fortunately, the answer is “no” because donations can be directed to a specific project/park/country. While the whole area is an interconnected ecosystem, and we shouldn’t care where the money goes specifically, it’s very hard to get over Azerbaijan’s murderous, bellicose, and hateful policies towards our nation.

You can get more information about CNF from their website, www.caucasus-naturefund.org. If you can, give a few bucks or tell your environmentally conscious friends to do so (using guilt is OK). The protection, expansion, and later interconnection of protected places in our homeland is extremely important and timely work. It will bear valuable fruit (literally and figuratively) in the near and long term. Let’s support it.

Garen Yegparian

Garen Yegparian

Asbarez Columnist
Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.
Garen Yegparian

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1 Comment

  1. Mr Yeghpayrian,generally  I like your articles ,( the one about the corruption index was very educative ).Your article about CNF is very interesting and informative. I very much agree with you that once “the ecology of our country is destroyed ,we won’t survive any long”. This has to be understood by our leaders in Armenia and in Diaspora, leaders and decision makers on all levels. Unfortunately few people in the Middle East or in Armenia  care about ecology.The content of your articless should be translated  into armenian, french, even arabic  and be  “marketed” by the armenian media.
    Well done!

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