Wetlands of Armenia: An Evil or a Treasure?

A full story of Armenian wetlands and waterbirds – from degradation to recovery

As birders in the US are gearing up for the height of migration in a few weeks, on the other side of the world the birds are already on the move, traveling to their breeding grounds across Europe from Africa and the Middle East. Weaving their way between the Black and Caspian seas, they will be seeking stopover spots along the way – but will they find them?Birds as Bioindicators

Join us on Friday, April 17 to hear ornithologist Karen Aghababyan discuss protection of critical ecosystems along the migration route through Armenia.

Karen Aghababyan is the executive director of BirdLinks Armenia, a conservation non-profit committed to the study and popularization of birds in Armenia and development of modern conservation practices for protection of birds and their habitats. In the past he was the head of Environmental Lab at AUA Acopian Center for the Environment, and Armenia’s National Coordinator for the European Breeding Bird Atlas 2. He has launched National Bird Monitoring and National Butterfly Monitoring in Armenia, and consulted UNDP, USAID, GIZ, WWF, and Ministry of Environment of RA on nature conservation and monitoring of wildlife. Most importantly, he has initiated improvement of Armenian Environmental Legislation and its linkage to the International Conventions and Agreements. Karen holds a PhD in biology from the Armenian Academy of Sciences and is the recipient of 2007 Whitley Award for Nature Conservation (https://whitleyaward.org/winners/white-stork-armenia.) He has authored numerous scientific papers published in international peer-reviews journals. His main research interest is study of habitat preferences of rare and threatened species of birds and butterflies and development of win-win models, where human business and wild habitats can successfully co-exist.