In a grainy colored video from 1995, two men stand on the top of a mountain in Vanadzor, Armenia, their hands buried deep in the soil. The two men are Vladimir Kazadjian and Gagik Amiryan, friends and colleagues of the Lori Branch of the Armenian Red Cross (ARCS) for over 30 years. The men are planting pine seedlings, one of the tree species that was decimated during the energy blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan from 1992-1995. The energy blockade of the 1990s was not the first time international conflict impacted Armenia’s natural environment, nor would it be the last.
While global leaders will soon descend on Baku, Azerbaijan, for this year’s 29th Conference of the Parties (COP) — the United Nations’ annual meeting on climate change — to discuss climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience strategies, little discussion will be had about Azerbaijan’s neighbor to the west and its place in those discussions. Armenia, a country whose indigenous people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) were forcibly displaced a year ago by Azerbaijan itself, not only deserves a seat at global discussions on climate change but also a platform to highlight its success stories in climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
Armenia, a country whose indigenous people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) were forcibly displaced a year ago by Azerbaijan itself, not only deserves a seat at global discussions on climate change but also a platform to highlight its success stories in climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
Azerbaijan’s uninitiated attacks on Artsakh and Armenia since 2020 have resulted in over 7,000 military and 170 civilian deaths from the 44-Day War in 2020, an estimated 1,225 killed and wounded between the 2020 ceasefire and September 16, 2023, at least 200 deaths from Azerbaijan’s attack on Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on September 19, 2023, and the total ethnic cleansing of its 120,000 residents, and at least four incursions into Armenia’s internationally recognized borders.
Armenia ranks on the higher end both in its vulnerability and resilience to climate change but lower when it comes to disaster risk. Armenia ranks 50 out of 118 countries in the ND-GAIN Index, making it “well positioned” to adapt to climate change but not without areas of improvement. In terms of disaster risk, Armenia ranks 75 out of 191 countries in the INFORM Risk Index, placing it at medium risk to humanitarian disasters and crises with a high risk from earthquakes, droughts and epidemics.
By 2090, temperatures in Armenia are expected to increase by 35-40% more than the global average. Change in precipitation is expected to vary and is highly dependent on geography and elevation, but a decline in average monthly precipitation is expected, as is an increase in extreme rainfall events like those that occurred in Lori and Tavush provinces earlier this year resulting in mass flooding. Higher incidences of drought are expected not only due to a reduction in precipitation but also the disappearance of the Caucasus Glaciers and poor water management.
The projected changes to Armenia’s natural environment will heavily impact Armenia’s agricultural sector. Agriculture is one of the most important economic sectors in Armenia, employing 22% of the country’s labor force as of 2023. The majority of Armenia’s farmers live and work in rural communities. Much of rural Armenia is poor, with a 22.8% poverty rate as of 2022. Rural farmers lack access to financial security, resources, education and training, making them the most susceptible demographic to climate risks as well as the least prepared to adapt.
Despite the challenges, there is much to learn from people doing on-the-ground climate work in Armenia.
Kazadjian and Amiryan of the Lori Branch of the ARCS were among the first to start reforestation efforts in Lori province after the energy blockade of 1992-1995. Kazadjian and Amiryan have been dedicated to climate projects in Lori for decades, working almost in anonymity. As longtime friends, their work dynamic is akin to an old married couple, squabbling over line items in a draft project proposal and fuzzy details of a tree nursery project from years ago.
Known colloquially as “the dark and cold years,” the energy blockade came in the aftermath of the 1988 Spitak earthquake, fall of the Soviet Union and First Karabakh War, leaving Armenia to fend for itself. Out of desperation, Armenians turned to their forests to survive. Locals recount stories of burning furniture, clothes and family albums just to make it through the winter. Once the blockade was lifted in 1995, what was once a country that boasted a 35% forest cover for millenia was left with just 7%. The blockade not only resulted in the destruction of forest habitats but also reduction in species biodiversity.
Since 2000, ARCS’ Lori Branch has reforested over 100 hectares of forest, replanting more than 700,000 chestnut, pine, maple and ash trees. For ARCS, reforestation is important beyond the known environmental benefits like carbon dioxide storage and improvement in air quality. ARCS’ main work is in disaster management — responding to humanitarian crises when they happen while creating resilience before crises happen. Forests reduce risk from landslides, avalanches, mudslides and flooding, all of which Lori is prone to. Reducing disaster risk then reduces the humanitarian response needed from ARCS when these crises happen.
A new project in development is focused on biodiversity conservation, specifically maintaining the biodiversity of wild plant habitats in Lori. The project intends to identify, monitor and restore highly endangered plant habitats and train wild plant harvesters on sustainable harvesting techniques. Seeds from environmentally and culturally important Armenian plants like mint, St. John’s Wort and yarrow are collected by ARCS workers from around Lori and are currently grown in a greenhouse in the town Spitak. The greenhouse will double as a tool to replant endangered species and as a training center for wild plant harvesters. Armenia is known as a biodiversity hotspot, with 452 plants, 40 fungi and 308 animal species listed as rare and endangered in Armenia.
In my work, I help ARCS develop the project and find potential donors once it is ready to be implemented. Biodiversity and wild plant harvesting specialists should keep eyes on ARCS as the project continues to grow. All those interested can contact Vladimir Kazadjian directly.
Similar climate solutions are being implemented in the agricultural sector of Armenia. Green Lane NGO is an Armenian nonprofit that focuses on training rural farmers to utilize sustainable agricultural practices and grow novel crops to increase economic stability. I was first introduced to Mariam Mardanyan, who works at Green Lane NGO, during their annual harvest festival in late September 2023. The festival was held at Green Lane NGO’s training center, home to a training garden that highlights the climate-smart agricultural practices they encourage their farmers to adopt. This was my very first weekend in Armenia as a Fulbright researcher, and throughout the three-day festival I met a plethora of farmers, vendors and agricultural exports.
Mardanyan has a degree in Organic Agriculture from the Armenian National Agrarian University and, unlike most of Armenia’s youth today, wants to one day return to her home in Tavush province to run a sustainable farm in tandem with her own restaurant. I witnessed Mardanyan’s work in action at Green Lane NGO’s other training center in Tavush. There I watched Mardanyan run a workshop for rural women in their 50s and 60s from Lori province on sustainable post-harvest techniques to reduce pests and increase soil health. These types of trainings are crucial for Armenia’s future, particularly because 70% of Armenia’s soil is degraded.
Almost exactly a year after attending Mardanyan’s training in Tavush, I was invited to speak at Democracy Today’s 14th international conference on women in peacemaking, where I spoke about the intersection of climate change and peacebuilding in Armenia. To my surprise, one of the farmers I met a year ago in Tavush was in the audience and remembered me. Unlike our first meeting, when I was unable to speak Armenian, we could now converse in a common tongue. She asked me how my research was going and if I needed any help and welcomed me to visit her farm anytime.
Climate solutions come in a variety of forms. They can be as complex as carbon capture and plastic-eating bacteria and as simple as planting trees and training farmers. Facing the challenges of combating climate change, Armenia deserves greater attention for its success stories in the fields of reforestation, biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture. Meanwhile, ahead of COP29 in November, much of the world’s attention is on Azerbaijan.
On December 13, 2023, 32 Armenian soldiers were released from Baku, Azerbaijan, in exchange for two Azerbaijani soldiers in the first Armenia-Azerbaijan prisoner swap since Azerbaijan’s genocidal attacks on Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2020. On the surface, this prisoner of war exchange was a success, allowing 32 members of the Armenian military to come home after being illegally held for over three years. A more nuanced glance reveals that the POWs were used as a bargaining chip to allow Azerbaijan to win this year’s bid for COP29.
Although the New York Times reported Azerbaijan won the bid for COP29 by coincidence, this is misleading. According to U.N. rules, this year’s COP had to be held in Eastern Europe, but because of the war in Ukraine and Russia’s opposition to COP being held in an EU member state and in Bulgaria, the only two countries left to win the bid were Armenia or Azerbaijan. Armenia blocked Azerbaijan’s bid for COP29, and it was only after low-profile meetings between the two countries in which the prisoner swap was negotiated that Armenia announced its support for Azerbaijan to host COP29.
Azerbaijan’s win to host COP29 has not been without controversy. The win has been criticized by international organizations including the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organisation Against Torture. The former Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo has called repeatedly for the release of all Armenian hostages before the start of COP29, and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is boycotting COP29 entirely to protest Azerbaijan’s genocidal attacks on Artsakh and in solidarity with Armenians.
Additionally, many Azerbaijani journalists and peace activists including Arzu Geybullayeva, Zhala Bayramova and Anar Mammadli have been outspoken against Azerbaijan hosting COP29, calling out the hypocrisy of holding the summit in a country as uncommitted to human rights and climate change as Azerbaijan. Many of these Azerbaijani activists have since been arrested usually on bogus charges, further proving these activists’ point.
Hosting COP29 will temporarily improve Azerbaijan’s public image, duping some into believing it is serious about reducing fossil fuel emissions and shifting to renewable energy. Azerbaijan’s renewable energy projects for Nagorno-Karabakh have come at the cost of genocide and destruction of historically and culturally significant Armenian sites. Caucasus Heritage Watch reports that as of June 2024 32 cultural sites are threatened, eight have been damaged, and 14 have been destroyed in Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is still unclear if Armenia will attend COP29, with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stating, “The overall situation, ongoing processes and atmosphere will undoubtedly influence our decision.” The attendance of an Armenian delegation at COP29 would be a historic moment, as Azerbaijan is one of the few countries that discriminates entry based on ethnicity. People of Armenian descent or suspected Armenian descent are often barred from entering regardless of nationality or citizenship, and any person who has visited the Republic of Artsakh is automatically declared personae non gratae. The current list of personae non gratae is over 1,000 people long and includes every distinction from journalists to heads of state and regular citizens.
Regardless of whether Armenia attends, it is unlikely discussions at COP29 will accurately highlight the problems in the region or represent Armenia’s interests relating to climate change. Yet while Armenia may be forgotten by environmentalists, overshadowed by conflict, Azerbaijan’s bid for COP29 and presumed irrelevance, those who are really dedicated to solving the climate crisis have much to learn from this small but mighty country.
Arya Jemal
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- Overshadowed by COP29, Armenian climate solutions deserve a spotlight - October 22, 2024
The COP29 will be a PR show for Azerbaijan, with the environment and climate change as afterthoughts for that dictatorship, when it is a hydrocarbon producer and exporter, a major polluter, its oil fields toxic waste sites, the Caspian Sea used as a sewer, and has overall primitive minimum Soviet-era environmental standarts.
When Pashinyan dropped his objection (he had actually no objection) for Azerbaijan hosting the COP29 conference, I bet he will go to Baku and attend this conference or send his even more inept foreign minister Mirzoyan.
If continuing to appease the Azerbaijani dictator Aliyev was not bad enough, that the Artsakhi leaders continue to languish in Azerbaijani prisons in the very same city where this conference is going to be held, and that Pashinyan is content for them to rot in prison, since he regards them as his political enemies, is revolting. And that other international leaders turn a blind eye and appease the Azerbaijani dictatorship, is equally revolting.
The COP29 will be apart from a PR coup for Azerbaijan, just a useless talking shop, like with so many international environmental conferences before.
Artsakh as a state is gone, yet Azerbaijan still continues its persona non grata list of people who visited Artsakh before 2023, and even continues to keep dead people on this persona non grata list! And anybody of Armenian descent, even non-Armenians who are married to Armenians and carry an Armenian surname, and even non-Armenians who have non-Armenian surnames ending with -yan or -ian, are barred from entering Azerbaijan, even though Azerbaijan’s excuse for barring them, no longer exists!