Armenia hosts COP17: The Amulsar gold mine undermines its biodiversity credentials
November 9, 2026
In 2026, Armenia will host the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 17), presenting itself as a global leader in biodiversity protection. However, just one week before the conference began, operations at the controversial Amulsar gold mine were launched, threatening the region’s biodiversity, including endangered species of wildlife, rivers and the Lake Sevan.
Armenia hosts COP17: Its ‘action for nature’ stops at Amulsar
October 20, 2026
Armenia is set to host the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) from 19 to 30 October. Hosting this high-profile environmental summit has drawn scrutiny to the government’s simultaneous backing of the controversial Amulsar gold mine project at home. At COP17, progress towards the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework will be reviewed for the first time. The summit’s slogan is ‘Taking action for nature’, yet the Amulsar case illustrates how countries and international investors are ‘taking action against nature’.
The EBRD’s (ir)responsible exit from the Amulsar gold mine project in Armenia
May 29, 2024
The engagement of the EBRD in supporting the Amulsar gold mine in Armenia in its early stages resulted in adverse environmental, social, economic, and human rights impacts. The EBRD terminated funding to the client and exited the project, but the harm remains unremedied.
International groups stand in solidarity with Armenian environmental and human rights defenders facing defamation and criminalisation
February 20, 2024
In recent months, Armenian human rights and environmental defenders and organisations have been facing defamatory attacks in local media. They are increasingly being targeted through defamation, smear campaigns, intimidation and criminalisation for their peaceful, legitimate human rights work.
Civil society groups urge the EBRD to rethink mining investments
September 20, 2023
Twenty civil society organisations from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Mongolia, Uganda, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, as well as seven international environmental and human rights organisations, are calling on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to reconsider its approach to mining investments.
The Armenian National Platform of the EaP CSF is concerned about the Government’s intention to re-launch the Amulsar mine project
April 14, 2023
The most important news from Armenia on Telegram …
Scandal with Amulsar: Vardanyan aims at plundering Armenia
February 24, 2023
BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 24. Ruben Vardanyan, the Russian billionaire of Armenian origin, having realized that his operations on barbaric …
Amulsar: Human Rights Violations and Environmental Negligence in the Search for Gold
June 28, 2022
This report sheds light on the human rights violations by the Armenian government and investors, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in relation to the Amulsar gold mine project.
Զգուշացում ՀՀ կառավարությանը․ Բեռնի կոնվենցիայի քարտուղարությունը՝ Ամուլսարի ծրագրի մասին
May 5, 2021
Հայկական բնապահպանական ճակատ նախաձեռնությունը հայտնում է․ «Էկոլուր կազմակերպությունն ու CEE Bankwatch-ը բողոք էին ներկայացրել Բեռնի …
As tensions reach a tipping point at Amulsar gold mine, what next for the EBRD?
August 20, 2020
In early August, Armenian protestors who had been blocking access continuously for the past two years to the controversial Amulsar gold mine were forcibly removed by the mine’s newly-hired security detail.
