There will be no forests in Armenia by 2020, Inga Zarafyan, the head of Ecolur NGO and ecologist, told the reporters on Tuesday.

She considers that statistics issued by the Agriculture Ministry is untrue.

“According to the statistics, forest area of Armenia totals 304.1 thousand hectares, that it covers 11.2% of the country. However, the same indicator was registered in 1992. These figures show nothing has changed since 1992, meanwhile numerous trees were cut during this period. The officials do not want to agree to the data provided by the American University. According to the research, Armenia’s forest area covers 7-8% of republic’s territory. If continues in this rate, the forecasts say there will be no forests by 2020,” Zarafyan said.

The expert noted that destruction of forests will lead to loss of water resources existing in forest areas, losing soil.  In the future the government will need billions of dollars and decades to restore all this.