Armenia Tree Project's Community Tree Planting Programme — 30 Years of Urban Reforestation in Yerevan

Armenia Tree Project (ATP), founded in 1994 by the Armenian Assembly of America in response to severe deforestation during the energy embargo of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, runs a Community Tree Planting programme that has planted 140,067 trees at 384 separate sites across all 12 administrative districts of Yerevan over 30 years, working with the municipality, schools, hospitals and community groups. ATP estimates the planted trees will capture close to 27,000 tonnes of CO2 over their lifetimes, based on a per-tree sequestration rate of roughly 22-31 kg of CO2 a year depending on species and growing conditions.
ATP also operates four tree nurseries and two environmental education centres in Armenia, employs 70-80 staff plus 75-100 seasonal workers for planting seasons, and runs a 'Plant an Idea, Plant a Tree' micro-enterprise programme that grew from 17 family-run nurseries in 2004 to 400 by 2008 (winner of the 2008 Energy Globe Award). Nationally, ATP reports over 8 million trees planted since its founding.
The evidence base for this practice is strongest on scale and reach — verified tree and site counts by district, three decades of continuous operation, and a named institutional history — but weaker on ecological outcome: no independent survival-rate study, canopy-cover measurement or biodiversity monitoring specific to the Yerevan plantings was found, and the carbon estimate is ATP's own calculation rather than a third-party verified figure. Armenia's national forest cover fell from roughly 11.2% (2005) to 7% (2012) due to wartime fuel-wood cutting, the backdrop against which this urban programme should be read.

Read the full analysis: https://armenianweekly.com/2025/06/12/greening-yerevan-30-years-of-community-tree-planting/