Natural heritage is precious and irreplaceable. Restoring and conserving our unique ecosystems needs our significant efforts and daily attention. We also need environmental actors, professionals to implement targeted efforts conserving the ecosystems and the natural heritage of the region. REC Caucasus is one of the key players behind numerous projects when it comes to environmental issues in the Caucasus region. Regional Environmental Center for the Caucasus (REC Caucasus) was established back in 1999 by the EU and the Governments of Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan in the frame of “Environment for Europe Process.” The primary goal of the center is to work towards the solution of environmental issues in the region and serve as a bridge among the stakeholders to achieve maximum efficiency. The development of civil society in the three states is another mission of this regional organization. We talked to Ms. Nune Harutyunyan, Executive Director of REC Caucasus about the regional mandate of the organization with a particular focus on ecosystem services.

Many travelers will be in awe of Tbilisi’s historical buildings, and the numerous church spires which sprout up from the city. The city itself has been a crossroads for empires, religions and peoples. But, the Armenian contribution to the city’s history seems to be on the wane, and nothing exemplifies this more than the neglected Armenian churches which once dominated the cityscape.

Neil Hauer is a Canadian freelance journalist, analyst and researcher writing on the North and South Caucasus. His stories were published on CNN, Guardian, Foreign Policy and AlJazeera. He has years of experience living and reporting on the ground from all over the region. He has covered the conflicts in Syria and Chechnya. More recently, Neil has been reporting live from the frontlines in Nagorno-Karabakh. Neil was one of the few foreign journalists, who has been covering the war and its aftermath while being on the ground almost all the time.

When talking about Armenian writers on a global scale, Armenians usually mention William Saroyan and Sergey Dovlatov. But that’s past. And who are the most successful authors with Armenian descent today?

Art & Music festival Alteration opened on May 30th in Yerevan, with world famous DJ Nina Kraviz performing on the stage of the legendary "Ayrarat" cinema hall, abandoned after the collapse of the USSR. Alteration will last till June 18, and will have events both with local and international artists.

Yerevan Wine Days is the most anticipated event of the year both for the locals and the tourists. Everyone awaits for the opening of the tourism season to take a glass of wine in their hand and enjoy the summer. In 2019, the event hosted 35,000 wine aesthetes within two days. The situation was significantly different in 2020 due to the Covid outbreak, however, the organizers found another way to keep the presence of the Yerevan Wine Days active and make the year-long quarantine gap less harmful for the winemakers in Armenia. Regional Post talked to Mary Badalyan, the co-founder of the Yerevan Wine Days, about the hardships of the previous year and the upcoming return of the wine celebration on the streets of Yerevan.

During the recent decades the use of fuelwood and dung for heating and cooking purposes has been a common practice in the rural households of Armenia. Unsustainable production and inefficient use of these fuels is linked to different areas including household economics, health, energy, and forests. Excessive use of fuelwood has negative consequences for human well-being and forests. There is a need to increase the efficiency of households’ heating as well as to explore and promote the alternatives. This will help to conserve the limited forest resources of Armenia for future generations and improve the livelihoods in rural Armenia.

Literary critic, chief editor of “Antares” publishing house Arkmenik Nikoghosyan tells about the recent trends in the Armenian literary market and its main bestsellers.

During the events, now known as the Second Artsakh war, the information field was the second frontline. Regional Post discussed with cybersecurity specialist Samvel Martirosyan whether it was all quiet on the cyber front.

On May 12th hundreds of Azerbaijani troops entrenched in the sovereign territory of Armenia amid ongoing negotiations between the two countries and international demands for their immediate withdrawal. This is what happened since and what's going on at this moment.

In early 2020 HSBC Bank Armenia appointed its first ever Armenian CEO, Irina Seylanyan. Regional Post met Mrs. Seylanyan to discuss how she led the bank through the tough year of pandemic and war, and challenges that female leaders face in Armenia.

Philip Morris Armenia has a new General Manager: Mihael Solter arrived here from Macedonia with brave vision of the future. Regional Post talked to him about the company's future after the pandemic and war.

An essential source of the might of empires throughout history has been their capacity to establish peace – no matter at what cost – between yesterday’s foes. This pattern was active in ancient Rome and is still practiced by regional and global powers. The Soviet Union came into being as a new power with a promise of an eternal peace between different ethnic groups and nations and vanished from the stage of history with a failure to live up to its promise. The case of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was a flagrant illustration of how an arbitrarily enforced peace failed to contain internal tensions and collapsed as soon as the imperial power waned giving way to local nationalist agendas.

In the aftermath of the World War II, 44 nations gathered in London to create an international body under the umbrella of the UN. The newly created body, UNESCO, would be responsible for educational, scientific and cultural cooperation, as well as for the post-war reconstruction and rehabilitation of the UN member states. Over the course of the 75 years, UNESCO has implemented numerous activities in the domains of education, science and culture globally. Its World Heritage Center has enumerated over 1000 sites and monuments all over the world, with an intention to preserve their cultural or natural significance and save those sites from destruction. But has UNESCO always been successful in its mission? Could it stick to the values and principles promoted by the UN? The status of an intergovernmental organization makes UNESCO extremely bureaucratic and dependent on political influence. At the same time, the labels that UNESCO gives to different cultural and natural treasures are being used as a powerful marketing tool that end up more harming those treasures, than actually preserving them.