Vahe Gulanyan on dishonest ‘owners’ of Sevan paid coasts
If you have decided to have a rest in the territory nearby Sevan coast and suddenly think that Sevan is a national treasure and it belongs to everyone, and you have found a quiet coast, do not get surprised when seeing a woman in a robe approaching you and saying: “this territory belongs to us, here it is written and pinned” by a psychology of “this mountain is ours, this tree is ours.” And it comes out that it is a paid coast: a few pavilions are in place, nothing else, neither a toilet nor a bin is present, a rugged area.
The “mistress” of this paid coast located at Lake Sevan, Shorzha area, Ms. Susanna with golden earrings and diamonds on it, seems to even do a favor to the ones coming from Yerevan, persuades them: “Well, if you are swimming for an hour, give 2000 drams, but the pavilion costs 5000 drams.”
Such paid coasts are manifold at Lake Sevan. Sevan renters have divided it into parts. Why? It is supposed that they should organize a proper service, but one can find very few paid coasts with a high-class service. The coasts which do not have an “owner”, look like a dump in the majority of cases. In Shorzha, the entrance of a few picturesque places we met was open, people were having a rest, making a barbeque under a tree, laying a table, cutting a watermelon and throwing the trash on the ground in the end, inasmuch as there was no bin there. But this is not a justification, it is not difficult to collect the trash in plastic bags and throw them into a bin first met.
It appears fight against people throwing trash in places not meant for trash is one of the most difficult ones and the fight against poaching as well. Anyway, this is what the people responsible for this field state.
In a few coasts of Shorzha we met the boats of the poachers and fishing tools – plastic bottles intertwined, which looked like dumps, creating an anti hygienic situation in that place.
The man guarding the territory told us: “It is the fisherman’s, sometimes they take it, sometimes leave it, is there any problem?” To our view that the fishing, whitefish hunting is banned, the latter replied: “We always fish, the officials also know everything. Is there any other problem not present in this country? Is fishing the primary issue?”
The director of “Sevan National Park” Vahe Gulanyan assured during the interview that they struggle against poachers, whitefish hunt is banned, the struggle not always goes smoothly, a lot of issues exist: “But I do not know why that man has told that, maybe he has praised himself.” It was ununderstandable what there was to be proud of, but a lot of poachers were gathered in that territory without hiding and the boats were parked in a free and visible place, just at the coast.
Gulanyan told that since July 1, crayfish hunt is allowed and the tools of the poachers are so that they take out every fish together with the crayfish off the water, banned fishes encompassed. And it is not so that the poachers do not want to catch a whitefish, according to Gulanyan. “We have trouble with living standards, we have a question of altering the consciousness, a lot of programs have been suggested, nothing helps or has an influence. We say – do not catch for 10 days, they boycott for the 11th day.”
Gulanyan assures they have several programs against poaching, presumably they will accept the program of sustainable usage which allows to catch fish which has been reproduced for once in a lifetime or the number which does not damage the fish reserves: “Everything is ready, that order plans to allow catching certain species. The plan is at the government, why it is not adopted, I cannot say. The second one is a more ambitious plan: we have suggested all fishermen to take them as employees and provide with every means for fishing and life safety, we will also give them salaries. This plan will cost 1 billion 300 million drams, but will rescue fish reserves and the control will be more easy to arrange.”
Gulanyan stated that the import of fishing tools by any given person should be banned, the government is to organize this. Gulanyan assured that whitefish reserve has increased throughout previous 4 years by 400 times: “I am inclined more towards allowing non-predicted fishing, for example, if they catch a crayfish, a certain number of whitefish comes with it as well. But I speak about legal fishing.”
As regards rubbish removal, Gulanyan informed that how much they clean, people throw the rubbish on the ground again or at the coast, even if there are bins around. According to Gulanyan, they should be very strict towards both the poachers and people throwing the trash on the ground, in majority of cases even fines do not have an influence on this kind of people: “There are poachers who prefer to be fined but fish again. The same is regarding the rubbish, until the consciousness of people is not changed, fines will not help.”
As to the paid coasts, Gulanyan assured that 800 agreements have remained out of 1400 currently, the rest has been nullified for working not properly. As Gulanyan states, at coastal area of Sevan, land lease costs 50-60 drams per Sq.m., for 1 ha people pay 500-700.000 drams annually: “It is not expensive, but it is still cheap for Sevan.”
According to Gulanyan’s opinion, 20-25 renters are enough for that area: “I treat suchlike renters negatively, who take money from people and do not work well enough. If I decided by myself, I would have banished everyone out of here.”
NELLY BABAYAN
“Aravot”
08.07.2017
