GEF grants Armenia a total of $28.3 million
25.09.2012,
17:50
Armenia has received so far a total of $28.3 million in grants from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), according to environment minister Aram Harutyunyan, who said this allowed to attract also $89.5 million in co-financing for implementation of 20 national projects in such areas as climate change, biodiversity conservation, organic pollutants, multidimensional projects and a project for the protection of the ozone layer.
YEREVAN, September 25. / ARKA /. Armenia has received so far a total of $28.3 million in grants from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), according to environment minister Aram Harutyunyan, who said this allowed to attract also $89.5 million in co-financing for implementation of 20 national projects in such areas as climate change, biodiversity conservation, organic pollutants, multidimensional projects and a project for the protection of the ozone layer.
Harutyunyan was speaking at an extended meeting of the GEF group of countries in Yerevan. He said Armenia participated also in five regional and global projects, which were financed by GEF in the amount of $12.3 million. He said they attracted $33.6 million in co-financing. GEF also provided $565,000 in small grants, which raised $1.1 million in co-financing for the implementation of 15 projects overseen by civic organizations, operating on the community level.
According to the minister, Armenia will have received also $1.5 million from 2010 to 2015 under System for Transparent Allocation of Resources (STAR) to develop and implement projects in biodiversity conservation, $2.3 million to carry out climate change-related projects, and $ 4.1 million to address soil degradation problem.
The Global Environment Facility’s extended seminar for interested groups in Central Asia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation will run through September 27.
The seminar has brought to Armenia representatives of civil society, GEF Secretariat, as well as from coordination centers dealing with biodiversity, desertification, climate change and chemical conventions issues.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) was founded in 1991 and brings together 182 countries, many international organizations, NGOs and the private sector. GEF is the largest source of funding for projects aimed at protecting the environment on a global scale. Since its inception, the GEF has allocated grants totaling more than $ 9 billion.-0-
