Luba Balyan is working with the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment as a researcher, building a repository of Armenian legislation, reports, and documents on forests in Armenia. She will also produce a report about the state of research on forests in Armenia and its gaps.
Luba is currently working to obtain a PhD in Zoology at the Research Center of Zoology & Hydroecology at the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. She has an MSc in Environmental Sciences & Policy from the University of Manchester, UK undertaken at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.
Throughout her career, she has been active in promoting biodiversity conservation, in particular birds. In 2003, she co-founded the Armenian Society for the Protection of Birds, a leading bird conservation NGO and a former BirdLife International partner in Armenia. She was the Society’s CEO for 15 years.
From 2009 to 2017, Luba joined the international Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) Program and was the ENPI East FLEG Country Program Coordinator for the International Union for Conservation of Nature which promoted forest conservation and governance in Armenia.