The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) awarded nearly $4.8 million grant for the previously announced project "Living Landscapes for Market Development in Armenia."

The initiative will help Armenia integrate natural conservation and economic growth in a novel way to benefit people who are most in need. The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Strategic Development Agency NGO are collaborating on the initiative, which is part of a larger regional programme called the Eco-Corridor Fund for the Caucasus (ECF).

In terms of biological richness, the Caucasus ecoregion is one of the most diverse in the world and Armenia's mountain ecology is a vital source of income for rural residents. However, the country's ecological situation is quickly worsening, with climate change and inadequate land and natural resource management posing serious threats. The high levels of rural poverty reflect the deteriorating environmental situation. So far, current policies have done nothing to address the triple issue of poverty, environmental damage, and the repercussions of climate change as they develop.

To address these issues, the Swiss-funded project "Living Landscapes for Market Development in Armenia" aims to boost the earnings of farmers and rural enterprises in distant locations by making better economic and environmentally sound use of local resources. It also contributes to the promotion of environmental and climate change policies by attempting to integrate economic growth, natural resource conservation, and biodiversity. The project's heart and soul is the development of ecologically friendly tourism, with the disadvantaged rural community as the primary benefit. This emphasis on inclusive tourism, which supports Armenia's official national tourist policy, has a lot of room for expansion inside Armenia and the South Caucasus.

The initiative is part of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the KfW Development Bank's wider regional programme, the Eco-Corridor Fund for the Caucasus (ECF). The WWF-Armenia is implementing the Armenian component in collaboration with the Strategic Development Agency NGO.