On February 10, 2021, the inaugural workshop of the project on “Mapping Pastures and Grasslands in Armenia” was held online, which was attended by representatives of the Ministries and territorial administration authorities affiliated with the natural fodder areas, as well as representatives of scientific institutions, local and international non-governmental organizations.

The project is realized within the framework of the ECOserve environmental program implemented by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). The works are carried out by the German Aerospace Center and International Center for Agribusiness Research and Education (ICARE), the pilot component is realized by the Strategic Development Agency (SDA) NGO, in close cooperation with the RA Ministry of Economy and the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure.

At the beginning of the event, Ashot Giloyan, the Head of the Local Self-Government Policy Department of the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, Ira Panosyan, the Head of the Agricultural Programs Elaboration, Resource Use and Cooperative Development Department of the RA Ministry of Economy, Tobias Whitman, the ECOserve Program Manager, and Arthur Grigoryan, the Director of the ICARE Foundation, greeted the participants and wished them fruitful work. The discussion was also attended by the RA Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Vache Terteryan, who stressed the importance of the presented initiatives and expressed readiness to support the presented programs.

The speakers noted the importance of the project on “Mapping of Pastures and Grasslands in Armenia” and expressed hope that the project will contribute to better and more sustainable management of pastures.

During the workshop, a number of activities were presented: the process of mapping of pastures and grasslands of Armenia, the project on mapping the prevalence, condition, biomass, and load of pastures and grasslands in Armenia, the preliminary results of GrassAM project, the pilot program on testing the maps of pastures and grasslands in Lori and Shirak Marzes and anticipated results.