Shikahogh Reserve

Kapan-Meghri motorway

In late 2004, the Ministry of Transport and Communication of the Republic of Armenia has approved the project on construction of the Kapan-Meghri motorway in order to promote trucking and passenger transportation between Armenia and Iran. This road was intended to serve an alternative to, then, the only route Kapan-Kajaran-Meghri which runs through the highest in Armenia mountain pass and is unsafe to drivers, especially during the winter. According to the initial draft, 17 km of the motorway had to stretch right through Shikahogh Reserve what would inevitably lead to annihilation of this protected area.

The winner of the bidding, “Transproject” CJSC, clashed with vigourous counteraction of environmentalists and local people. On 3 May 2005, the coalition “SOS Shikahogh” was established to join professional ecologists and laymen from over 40 national and international non-governmental organizations (NGO) and scientific bodies. Armenian branch of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) appealed to international organizations, such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with a requеst to support the reserve in its battle for survival. The Union of Armenian ecological NGOs appealed to President, Prime Minister, Chairman of National Assembly and Prosecutor General to stop road construction. The Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) sent an open letter to President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and the Armenia Tree Project (ATP) urged the Armenians from global diaspora to send their opinions to R. Kocharyan through the Armenian ambassador to the USA Tatul Margaryan. Director of Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) Dan Martin and CEPF Representative in the Caucasus Christopher Holtz met with Minister of Nature Protection of Armenia Vardan Aivazyan and discussed the Shikahogh issue.

Activities of the “SOS Shikahogh” coalition were supported by numerous protest rallies, publications and TV broadcasts.

The outcome of these serious actions was that on 29 June 2005 the Government of the Republic of Armenia has made a decision on road construction in detour of the reserve and not through it. However, the sceptical forecasts of professionals turned out a reality: located mostly on the northern slopes of the Meghri Ridge and being very serpentine, this motorway is not popular among drivers, especially the Iranian truckers.

The website was created in 2009 as part of the project “Biodiversity Protection and Community Development: Implementing Ecoregional Conservation Plan Targets in South Armenia”. The project was implemented by WWF Norway and WWF Armenia with the financial support of the Norwegian Government.