The main objective of the 4th National Program Advisory Committee (NPAC) meeting in Yerevan, Armenia, was to present the results of the Year II activities, as well as propose and discuss the plans for Year III.

Each of the implementing organizations presented their respective activities proposed for the 3rd year of the Program and asked NPAC to confirm the need, as well as provide recommendations regarding the efficiency and implementation of these activities.
The current state of the forestry sector, parallel activities and related programs implemented by partner organizations were also discussed during the meeting.

Participants of the meeting included Deputy Head and Chief Forester of “Hayantar” SNCO Ruben Petrosyan; EU delegation representative John Barker; Head of the Forestry Department at the Ministry of Agriculture Arthur Petrosyan; Head of State Forest Monitoring Center Aram Gyulkhasyan; President of Transparency International in Armenia Sona Ayvazyan; UNDP Program Policy Adviser Georgi Arzumanyan; Advisor at GIZ Ayser Ghazaryan; President of Eco-Lur NGO Inga Zarafyan; as well as representatives of the World Bank, IUCN, and WWF.

The EU delegation representative, Mr. John Barker, highlighted the importance of pilot activities, in the way they are done under FLEG program. Mr. Barker indicated that among the pilots, “Strengthening sustainable forest management in Armenia through activities with model forest units such as protected forest areas and activities on sustainable use of forest resources with involvement of adjacent communities” is his favorite one.

All the participants agreed that in the current state of the forestry sector the review of the forestry-related legislation is critically needed.

The participants requested to have more interaction with the Program, not only through websites and reports, but also through live meetings, presentations of reports, discussions and conferences.