COP17 on biodiversity: On the trail of the wood thieves in Armenia

European magazine COP17 on biodiversity On the trail of the wood thieves in Armenia As of: October 18, 2026 • 8:48 a.m

From Monday, representatives from almost 200 countries will discuss how the goals they have set for themselves can still be achieved at the 17th UN Conference on Biological Diversity. On the road with environmentalists in the host country Armenia.

Gor Hovhannisyan waits on the edge of Dilijan National Park. He's about to set off with his two rangers - looking for illegal loggers. This time: a new app on the cell phone that processes satellite images into red pins on the cell phone map.

They are pinheads that describe places where a tree has fallen. Either by yourself - or with the use of tools. The AI ​​offers a new technology that should make it easier for the small team to protect the valuable mixed forest. “Thirty years ago, 21 percent of Armenia was covered with forests,” says Hovhannisyan. "Now it's officially seven percent, just a third. But those are just the official numbers. I think it's actually less than five percent."

Hovhannisyan founded his NGO ten years ago. Back then, hunting illegal loggers was even riskier than it is today. "In the first three years it was very dangerous. Once our volunteers were beaten by villagers for 20 minutes," says Hovhannisyan. "Another time I was taking my daughter to school when a man I didn't know came and said: Next time you might not find your daughter at school."

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Hovhannisyan is a man of conviction; he loves the forest, even if he cannot make a living from nature conservation. There are around 30,000 euros in grants from the CNF, the Caucasus Nature Fund Foundation. Hovhannisyan has a handful of other jobs - otherwise the father wouldn't be able to make ends meet. The search for illegal loggers is time-consuming, but the new AI technology is showing initial success.

The first tree stump that the cell phone leads him to apparently fell using a chainsaw. On the way to the next marker on the cell phone, the team comes across a car, the dark green color suggests that it is a forestry vehicle - but there is a private citizen sitting inside. In the full rear compartment: freshly sawn wood. The driver explains that everything is legal - Hovhannisyan doesn't believe him and takes a photo of the license plate.

The Caucasus Nature Fund promotes, among other things, the reintroduction of the Maral deer, a Caucasian red deer. The species was virtually extinct in Armenia. There are now more than 30 animals again.

Finds like these are a success for Hovhannisyan, whose constant inspections deter illegal loggers. And also a success for the CNF, which achieves a lot with little money. “It is one of our most successful projects,” praises CNF director Arman Vermishyan. In his office, he runs his finger over a map of the region and describes the means with which the CNF supports projects in the region: Armenia receives 1.4 million annually, Georgia two million. For each funding, the respective state must provide at least half itself.

The CNF was founded in 2007 by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation, the German WWF and the nature conservation organization Conservation International. “Most of our resources are German money,” says Vermishyan.

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The funds are intended to promote nature conservation as an overall project. If the forests are stable, the flora and fauna as a whole help. The CNF is promoting the reintroduction of the Maral deer, a Caucasian red deer. The species was virtually extinct in Armenia. “We now have 31 animals here and we have already released 22 into the wild. There are eight babies among them,” reports Mher Sadoyan, project coordinator at WWF.

The WWF is also involved in the reintroduction of the Caucasian leopard, of which there are hardly more than 40 in the region, around a dozen of them in Armenia. Everything is connected: the forest has to offer protection for the deer, the leopard in turn also lives from the deer. Simple connections, but the countries of the world find it difficult to protect nature.

Less than half of the world's countries are on track with their own national biodiversity goals, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Yerevan before the opening of the two-week conference that brings together almost 200 states parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity. "This bad news means that the war against nature is not yet over," says Guterres. According to experts, up to a million animal and plant species could be threatened with extinction in the coming decades.

It is a fight that tires activists like Hovhannisyan and often leaves them doubtful. The app on his cell phone has now identified two suspicious locations in Dilijan National Park that show fresh saw marks. The wood truck from the morning turns out to be a wood thief - there was no other car on the road. Hovhannisyan now has a new case: "I have his license plate, and the man now has a big problem."

Hovhannisyan no longer believes that these problems surrounding more nature conservation will be solved by the thousands of politicians and guests at the COP17 conference. He sits on a steep mountain slope and looks frustrated at the large tree stump in front of him.

Hope for politics has given way to cynicism: "We now have the conference in Armenia and our leaders will talk about the beautiful plans and pictures and the great future. That we will plant ten million trees and the dinosaurs will come back - whatever they say: no one believes that."

You can see these and other reports in the Europamagazin - on Sunday at 12.45 p.m. on Erste.

This topic in the program: The First | European magazine | Oct 18, 2026 | 12:45 p.m. tagesschau.de | COP17 on biodiversity in Armenia | Oct 18, 2026 | 8:45 a.m