From a hill overlooking the Shikahogh nature reserve in Armenia, Marat Haroutiounian shows the forests cleared for the needs of the Azerbaijani army. A practice that threatens rare wildlife and the livelihoods of residents.
According to this local official, in this region of southern Armenia bordering Azerbaijan, Baku soldiers illegally occupy “more than 2,700 hectares” of the Shikahogh reserve and “several hundred hectares of agricultural land”.
Yerevan accuses the Azerbaijani army of seizing these territories in 2021 and 2022 and setting up their positions there, felling trees to build supply routes and mining the area.
Azerbaijan, for its part, rejects accusations of occupation of Armenian territory, affirming that the border in this sector has not been the subject of an official delimitation.
“They are razing everything, without checking whether or not a species appears in the Red Book” of protected species, accuses Marat Haroutiounian, deputy mayor of the city of Kapan, the regional capital, to AFP.
An observation shared by biologist Harout Aghatelian, who claims to have discovered on several occasions dead animals, their legs amputated, victims of mine explosions, whose detonations sometimes resonate in the woods.
“All the lands are directly in the enemy's sights,” accuses this 35-year-old man, 15 of whom work in this reserve, which extends over a strip of land separating Azerbaijani territory from its enclave of Nakhichevan.
Created in 1958, the Shikahogh reserve covers approximately 12,400 hectares of oak and beech forests, groves of plane trees and yews of an endangered species. It is also home to brown bears, leopards and Caucasian wild goats.
Marat Haroutiounian also fears that the felling of trees and earthworks could cause landslides, mudslides and rockfalls. Especially since the military presence and landmines make it impossible to assess the consequences directly on the ground.
“No one knows the real extent of the damage,” confirms Ayser Ghazarian, a forestry expert. Its analysis of satellite images reveals earthworks on approximately 90 hectares, including some 60 hectares of forest, as well as the felling of wood, with a volume estimated between 14,000 and 16,000 m3. It is not even certain that a complete restoration is possible after what he describes as “large-scale ecocide”.
Armenia wants to draw attention to this issue as it hosts the United Nations COP17 on biodiversity in Yerevan until the end of October.
The situation highlights ongoing tensions between these two Caucasus countries, which seek to negotiate a lasting peace after three decades of hostility and several wars. Yerevan and Baku have been negotiating an agreement for years to resolve their territorial disputes and have spoken of a certain relaxation since the last war in 2023, which resulted in Azerbaijan retaking the Karabakh enclave from Armenian separatists.
In the rural region of Syunik, where the nature reserve is located, residents remain on alert. For locals, the loss of agricultural land and pastures to Azerbaijan threatens their livelihoods.
“How could I start a family and have children when there is no security?” asked AFP Mouraz Arzoumanian, 26, who is unemployed and lives with his parents. “I can't imagine my child growing up here, going out into the yard to play and run, constantly being in someone's sights,” explains this former soldier, trained in metallurgy.
The Shikahogh school has only one student left and the elderly residents can no longer even visit the graves of their loved ones. However, the municipality hopes that those who left will one day return.
Biologist Aghatelian, who raises rabbits, is determined to stay. “I was born and raised in the middle of forests. I love these forests,” he confides. “My child is 18 months old, and I want him to grow up here.”
