"Vocational Education Reforms" NGO - from January 1, 2020 to  April 30, 2021 -  has been fulfilling "Conserving Fish Stocks through Raising Public Awareness and State Policy Reforms " project (hereinafter referred to as the Project) within the framework of a competitive grant awarded by the GEF SGP.
The main goal of the project is to promote the conservation of fish stocks, the sustainable development of amateur fishing, by raising public awareness of their preservation issues and advancing public policy reforms in the fisheries sector.
Within the project scopes, it is envisaged to develop current rules and informative material restrictions on fish species composition  and biological features found in Armenian still waters, implementation of amateur fishing   as well as  draft legislative acts streamlining amateur fishing.
In the first stage, the project experts, in close cooperation with the specialists of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Armenia, have developed current rules and informative material restrictions on fish species composition  and biological features found in Armenian still waters, implementation of amateur fishing   as well as  draft legislative acts streamlining amateur fishing. Meanwhile, the legislative framework streamlining the amateur fishing sector was studied and analyzed, the existing problems were identified, draft legislative and other normative acts were developed for further discussions and reprocessing. In the second phase, information campaigns on fish species identification, drafts on information regarding the biological characteristics of those species, the current state of the amateur fishing legislation and possible reforms were discussed with hundreds of amateur fishers and dozens of NGOs representing thereof.
At the same time, targeted work was carried out with amateur policy-making and organizations implementing supervision in the fisheries sector, during which the legislative proposals for the improvement of fisheries and conservation policies and the possibilities of their implementation were discussed.
In the third stage, as a result of the above-mentioned meetings and discussions, “Fish of Armenia: "Guide-Decisive" book, "Fisherman's Memorandum" booklet, "We ought to preserve" poster as well as the drafts on the legislative reforms of fishing and conservation policy of fish  stocks were developed.
The printed information materials on fish will be provided to various beneficiary organizations - state bodies, universities, colleges, high schools, and the draft legislation will be provided to the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Armenia.
The coordinator expert of the project is Dr. Sc., Professor Pipoyan.