Hakob Sanasaryan

Hakob Sanasaryan (also Akop Sanasaryan) (c.1950-) is an Armenian environment advocate, a chemist, and the current chairman of the Green Union of Armenia. He is involved in environmental politics at an important level of responsibility.

As head of the Green Union of Armenia, he has been actively involved in nuclear policy in the country, claiming that the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant did not meet internationally accepted nuclear safety standards, due to the lack of a containment vessel.[1]

Sanasaryan has also been actively involved in forestry within the country and in campaigning against economic policy in Armenia that directly affects its natural landscape.[2] The Armenian Copper Program (ACP) required that some 357.16 hectares of forest would be logged for the purpose of the exploitation of the copper and molybdenum mine in the village of Teghut in Lori Province, but Sanasaryan and the Green Union estimated that 170,833 trees would be logged, and objected on the grounds that many walnut, pine, apple and pear trees would be removed.[3] He also expressed concern about the location of the site which he believed would affect the nature of soil composition in the area and makes it susceptible to dangerous landslides. [4]

Lake Sevan

In 2005, Sanasaryan and the Green Union campaigned against the Ararat Gold Extraction Enterprise (AGEE), a branch of the Canadian Sterlite Gold Limited Companya who wanted to build a gold factory near its Gegharkunik mine in Sotk, posing a severe danger to the nearby Lake Sevan. The factory in processing gold from ore, would require the heavy usage of toxic chemicals, including cyanide. Hakob Sanasaryan declared that the factory would be a disaster on the regional environment, and due to the proposed factory's nearness to the lake, the discussion itself anti-constitutional and therefore should not be held. With discussion in which the Deputy Minister of Trade and Economic Development Gagik Vardanyan was involved it was indeed confirmed under Armenian legislation, that it was unlawful to build a mining factory even within a radius of 50 kilometers of Lake Sevan.[5]

Hakob Sanasaryan is involved with the Strategy and Action Program for Development of Basin Management Organization, and has been a component in the USAID program for Institutional and Regulatory Strengthening of Water Management in Armenia. In September 2005 he participated in a new reassessment of water management in Armenia.[6]

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