Recently, such a direction of tourism as ecotourism has been developing in Armenia. In the nature protection zones of the state, various tourist routes are being developed and recreational zones are being built.
According to TOP-MEDICAL-SCHOOLS, the most popular nature reserve in Armenia is Dilijan Reserve, which spreads around Dilijan on an area of 24 thousand hectares. Rare for Armenia are protected here. forest communities. The reserve was founded in 1958. Most of the territory of the reserve is located on the northern slopes of the Areguni Range, covered with deciduous forests, consisting mainly of beech, oak, hornbeam, ash, linden and maple. In addition, a relic yew grove has been preserved in the Akhnabad Gorge, where trees over 300 years old and about 20 m high grow. Brown bear, wolf, fox, badger, stone marten, weasel, lynx, forest cat, wild boar, deer and roe deer, there are also reptiles, reptiles and about 120 species of birds, among which there are many birds of prey. In the rivers and lakes of the reserve there are trout, khramulya, kurinsky barbel, kurinsky bleak and bystrianka. There are several dozen lakes on the territory of the reserve, the largest of which is Lake Parz.
Be sure to visit the country’s only National Park, which is located on the shores of Lake Sevan. Sevan is the largest lake in Armenia (area – 1200 sq. km) and the largest source of fresh water in the entire Transcaucasus. The area of Sevan National Park exceeds 100 thousand hectares. About 1,600 species of plants grow here, 20 species of mammals and about 180 species of birds, including migratory pelicans, flamingos, mute swans, screaming swans and cormorants. Valuable species of fish are bred in the lake for industrial fishing – Sevan trout “ishkhan”, pike perch, khramulya, barbel and whitefish.
The nature protection zones of the environs of Yerevan are interesting. Southeast of the capital, on the border of the regions of Kotayk and Ararat, is the smallest of the reserves of Armenia – Erebuni. The reserve was established in 1981 on an area of 89 hectares to protect wild grain crops (mainly wheat and rye). There are 293 plant species here, including over 100 varieties of wheat. The reserve is inhabited by such mammals as fox, weasel, stone marten, wolf and badger, numerous rodents, 17 species of reptiles and about 50 species of birds.
Also in the region of Ararat, not far from Yerevan, is the Khosrov Reserve. According to legend, at the beginning of the 4th century, King Khosrov Kotak ordered the creation of a protected forest here for hunting animals and birds, which is now part of the Khosrov Reserve and is called the Khosrov Forest. In total, forest communities account for about 16% of the territory of the reserve (the total area of the reserve is 29,200 ha). Basically, communities of upland xerophytes covering the slopes of the mountains are protected here: Asteraceae, grasses, legumes, cruciferous, labiales, carnations, rosaceae, umbrellas, burrows, borage and lilies. The reserve is inhabited by 55 species of mammals (Transcaucasian brown bear, wild boar, broad-eared hedgehog, Armenian mouflon, bezoar goat, wolf, fox, Persian leopard, as well as endemic mountain lynxes and Syrian bears), arachnids (tarantula, scorpions, cross-spider), 30 species of reptiles.
In the south of the Syunik region, on an area of 10,000 hectares, on the northern slopes of the Meghri Range, at an altitude of 700 to 2400 m, the Shikahogh Reserve is located. In the reserve, areas of mountain oak-hornbeam forests with the rarest relic ferns are protected. There is also a yew grove and the largest plane tree grove in Transcaucasia – the Tsavskaya plane tree grove with an area of 120 hectares, the age of which trees reaches 300 years. In total, there are more than 1,000 plant species in the Shikahogh Reserve. Of the animals, brown bear, roe deer, forest cat, wolf, fox, wild boar, badger and hare, shrew, weasel, pine and stone marten live here. Occasionally you can meet a leopard, a leopard, a lynx, a bezoar goat and an Armenian mouflon. Also, such rare birds as the Caspian Snowcock and the Bearded Vulture are protected in the reserve.
On the eastern borders of the Syunik region, in the vicinity of the city of Goris, the Karagel (Sevlich) Inter-Republican Reserve was created in 1987. The purpose of the reserve is to protect the natural complex of the alpine lake Karagel (Sevlich). Lake Karagel lies at an altitude of 2658 m in the crater of an extinct volcano. Its length reaches 1950 m, maximum width – 1250 m, maximum depth – 7.8 m. The vegetation of the lake coast is represented mainly by meadow communities. In 1967, the Sevan trout was acclimatized in the lake.
