There are no Endangered Species at Amulsar Area: Professor Fayvush

Georgi Fayvush, who leads botany department at the RA NAS Institute of Biology named after A.L.Takhtajyan, is confident that there are no Red-book listed species at the Amulsar areas planned for drilling operations. The Potentilla porphyrantha species, which used to grow at this area, has been translocated and resettled at another place.

According to Armenpress, Doctor Fayvush has been engaged in Amulsar area studies since 2011. Because of the unfavorable weather conditions, the surveys were launched in spring-summer, 2012.

“Before starting the field studies, we looked through the herbarium that we had, which represents a full collection of the specimens growing in Armenia and found no rare and Red-Book-listed plants growing at Amulsar area.” In winter, we gave our preliminary conclusion. “There is no Amulsar-related data in the literature sources and the herbarium date, so a comprehensive and complete biological survey of the Amulsar area is required.” We launched the survey in spring-summer 2012. For three consecutive years, we were surveying the area during the vegetation periods of 2012-2014,” says Dr. Fayvush, by adding that Dr. Eleonora Gabrielyan from the Armenian Institute of Botany, who is also a chairman of the Armenian biological society, was studying the area before his team’s first visit to the Amulsar area. A Red-book listed plant was already identified by her teammates. “We studied the plant in details, namely the plant’s habitat and growth pattern and understood that it was the plant species of Potentilla porphyrantha. The finding of the plant created an obstacle for the Lydian Armenia, as the law bans any type of operations within an area occupied by Red-book-listed plants species,” Dr. Fayvush said.

The identification of the plant at the area forced the Company to plan the Potentilla P. conservation measures. Some 5 000 individuals of the plant species were revealed by survey of the area. This is a very small-size plant with small rose flowers, growing at high-mountainous regions, on rocky slopes and screes. The detailed survey of the area revealed some 2 000 individuals of the Potentilla p. growing within the area planned for the Lydian Armenia’s operations.

“Based on the RA Government’s resolution, a permit was issued to translocate the Red-Book-listed species to a protected area or botanical gardens and to designate an area for P.p. Sevan branch of the Yerevan botanical garden was selected for the purposes, with an open-air rockery and a small greenhouse constructed to create all the natural conditions for the plant species. After it some 2000 individuals of the plant species were translocated to the Sevan botanical garden from the Amulsar area,” Dr. Fayvush said by adding that the project makes a good progress and some 90 per cents of the translocated species have got adapted to the new conditions, since the year of 2013, and even bloom and give seeds. He highlights the importance and the possibility of relocating and resettling the plants within the area of their origin after 15-20 years, when the mine operations are over at Amulsar site.

As regards the recent statements on availability of other Red-Book-listed plant species at Amulsar area, Dr. Fayvush says that based on his own and his colleagues’ surveys of the area he can state that there are no Red-book-listed plant species at the Amulsar area, which may be damaged by the on-going operations. As to the Apollo butterfly and Acantholimon caryophyllaceum species frequently-mentioned in this regard, Dr. Fayvush says that there are many species of the latter in Armenia, of which three species are listed in the Red Book, but none of the Red-book-listed ones grows within the Amulsar area. As to the Apollo butterfly, the inspection group, consisting of zoology experts Vasil Ananyan and Aleksandr Malkhasyan, climbed up the Amulsar mountain and sighted the butterfly at an altitude of some 3 000 meters.

The official views on the availability of the Apollo butterfly were submitted to the Nature Protection Ministry by the inspection group members, which requires termination of the on-going operations in view of the recently-identified new ecological factors. According to the Ministry’s decision, further studies and surveys will be required to identify the occurrence of the Apollo butterfly and Acantholimon caryophyllaceum species at Amulsar. Fayvush says that the following experts, namely Marine Hovhannisyan, chairing the department of plants taxonomy and geography at the Institute of Botany, a co-author of the RA Red Book and an expert of the Plumbaginaceas and Acanthokumib caryophyllaceum, Mamikon Ghasabyan, who leads the vertebratas laboratory of the RA NAS Institute of Zoology, and Mark Kalashyan, who leads the entomology laboratory at the Research Center of Zoology and Hydroecology of the RA NAS, as well as Aleksandr Danchenko from the Moscow State University were invited by Artem Tarzyan from the Bioresources Management Agency of the RA Nature Protection Ministry for the further surveys.

The further surveys by the above-mentioned experts have proven that the Amulsar-sighted species of Acantholimon vedicum Mirz is not listed in the RA Red book, but is listed in the RA Red Book annex, categorized as DD, which means that there is not sufficient information on the species, spread, quantity and dispersal thereof. The identified plant species is the Acantholimon vedicum Mirz and not the Acantholimon caryophyllaceum. Aleksandr Danchenko, who visits Armenia every summer for already 37 years for the survey of the butterflies, states that the butterfly cannot breed at such an altitude.

“The only thing that matters is the place where the larvae development takes place and where a new butterfly is born. This was the first time that the butterfly was sighted at Amulsar. There is just one plant species used by the butterfly larvae for feeding on. And there is no such a plant at the Amulsar peak, according to Danchenko”, says Dr. Fayvush.