Yerevan /Mediamax/. Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of the Belgians visited My Forest Armenia’s afforestation site in Tsaghkunk, for the official inauguration of the “Belgian-Armenian” forest.

Queen Mathilde is visiting Armenia as United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Advocate. 

Queen Mathilde was welcomed by Andre Gumuchdjian, the Founder of My Forest Armenia, a Belgian-Armenian philanthropist, and his team, as well as representatives of local authorities, and major donors of the Belgian-Armenian forest. 

The new forest of 60,000 trees covering 20 ha has been created thanks to donations by Belgian and Armenian individuals and organizations, and planted in 2025 manually by local people.

 

Andre Gumuchdjian presented the mission and the activities of My Forest Armenia to Her Majesty the Queen and emphasized the importance of forest preservation and reforestation. 

He noted: “It is our absolute pleasure that Her Majesty Queen Mathilde is honouring us by inaugurating this young forest, thereby underlining the crucial importance of forests. Forests are the source of life on our planet. My Forest Armenia’s mission to extend and restore the forest cover is more than ever necessary: while the country prepares to host COP-17 on Biodiversity next year, we should put more resources towards restoring forests sustainably and in respect of local biodiversity. ”

 

Lilith Martirosyan, the Deputy Director of the organization, presented the details of the reforestation project in Tsaghkunk. With respect to biodiversity, only native forest tree species grown in the nurseries of the organization were planted: including wild pear, wild apple, oak, birch, pine, sea buckthorn, ligustrum. Around 50 people were recruited to plant the trees. 

A symbolic tree was planted by Her Majesty the Queen in the Belgian-Armenian forest as a symbol of friendship between the Kingdom of Belgium and the Republic of Armenia.