EcoLur
At the press conference of 7 February Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosyan touched the problem of using Magel Cave for tourism purposes. Reminder: ecologists and zoologists have been protesting for several years against leasing Magel Cave, as the cave is distinguished for its unique biodiversity, particularly, it has red-listed bats recorded both in the Red Book of Armenia and IUCN.
At the press conference the Culture Minister said that “meeting with environmentalists was held at the ministry. Under her, “they had an opportunity to learn the project documentation submitted for contest. The environmentalists agrees that the project documentation includes all the points connected with bats, as well as with season ban of visiting the cave,” Poghosyan said, (the article published by ArmInfo “MAgel Cave: Conserving Bats or Developing Tourism” http://arminfo.am/index.cfm?objectid=04964B30-8FE8-11E3-A8E90EB7C0D21663).
Under the reliable information EcoLur has, Minister HAsmik Poghosyan didn’t have any meeting with Professor Eduard Yavruyan, specialist in wing-handed animals, who studies the situation with bat colonies, including Magel Cave. She didn’t meet Mamikon Ghasabyan, Laboratory Head of Vertebrate Zoology, Institute of Zoology of NAS RA, Chairman of the Association for Bird Protection, who deals with the protection of biodiversity in Magel Cave on voluntary bases, i.e. nobody who protects the cave and beats alarms signals. What about official environmentalists or the representatives of Nature Protection Ministry, there were no official relations with them, as these relations are regulated by RA Law on Environmental Impact Expert Assessment. EcoLur received an official reply that the Ministry hadn’t received any project of converting Magel Cave into a tourism object.
We would like to clear up the matter with the document, which “Incar” LLC shows. Under the law on environmental impact expert assessment, it lost its force and is considered invalid. It’s unclear what the Culture Minister wanted to say and which environmentalists she met.
February 11, 2014 at 16:19