Armen Stepanyan, Lydian Armenia Director of Sustainability and Jo Treweek, the founder of Treweek Environmental Consultants (UK) represented Lydian International at Special Symposium on Biodiversity in Washington DC. U.S.

Armen Stepanyan presented a paper in the closing plenary session of the symposium, sharing experiences on biodiversity management issues from the Amulsar Project. He provided an overview of the efforts made by Lydian to conform to international best practices. He also shared some perspectives on public-private partnerships and their role in raising standards in the mining sector.

Jo Treweek, who is also Lydian’s principal consultant on biodiversity issues and the lead consultant on the establishment of Jermuk National Park in Armenia, co-chaired the symposium on behalf of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Jo Treweek and Armen Stepanyan later presented an overview of the biodiversity management at Amulsar Project to the Washington Area Branch of IAIA.
 
Many biodiversity experts consider that Lydian’s approach to development of a comprehensive mitigation strategy and its efforts to preserve threatened species may become an exemplary project for the industry. An example is its support for research on the rare Alpine plant Potentilla Porphyrantha, which is being completed in partnership with the Armenian IoB and Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden.