The KHNR is one of the Important Bird Areas in Armenia which is a destination for number of Raptor species including globally endangered Egyptian and Cinereous Vultures, and locally endangered Lammergeyer, Snake-eagle, Golden Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagle, and others (Important Bird Areas of Europe 2000). It is surrounded by several villages and towns among which the Oortsadzor, Dashtakert, Shaghap, Lanjanist, Garni, and Goght villages are the closest ones and people from those both villages have informal access to Reserve. The environmental education in vicinity of KHNR is still poor although the Oortsadzor village was in the focus of environmental NGOs. Our recent questionnaires in other villages, shows that even the environmental education was implemented in Oortsadzor village where the classes have demonstrated the importance of the Raptors and raised general awareness of kids, they did not show the alternative. Children still love the Raptors, but understand love as keeping them as pets. There is a tradition to keep Raptors as pets at home in many parts of Armenia as well as in mentioned villages.

Every year local kids, who know the nests in surrounding area very well, take several nestlings from easy accessible raptors’ nests, e.g. Long-legged Buzzard and keep at home until they die. The situation became worse, when some restaurants and individuals started to purchase alive Raptors, and also when information about purchasing of falcons by falconers from Middle East was distributed in Armenia. Since that time, every hook-billed bird in Armenia is critically endangered. Our overall goal is to provide the alternative way to interact with the Raptors for the children by using the rather common Long-legged Buzzard as a model. Simultaneously we would collect the scientific information about Long-legged Buzzard, which will be used for two main purposes: a) for understanding the population conditions, and value of the species for agriculture (as controller of rodent’s populations), and b) for developing educational materials showing the importance of the species for ecosystem and human well being.