CHFP; A New Forest Management Model for Sustainable Development

Deputy for Forestry of FRWO said that the achievements of the multipurpose Caspian Hyrcanian Forests Project (CHFP) has preserved the biodiversity and sustainability of ecosystem services in the Hyrcanian forests. He stated that the CHFP has provided a new sustainable forest management model in the 4 pilot areas in three provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan with emphasis on alternative livelihood and participatory mechanisms and eventually has resulted in a paradigm shift from wood-based forestry to multi-purpose community-based forest management system.

According to FRWO’s website, Abbasali Nobakht, at the CHFP Steering Committee meeting which was held with the presence of Ms. Razina Bilgrami UNDP interim Resident Representative said that FRWO in line with the Sixth Development Plan has stopped the exploitation of forests in the North through an alternative plan that replaces wood harvest with forest conservation and development.

 He also noted that CHFP model has contributed to a great extent to the formulation of the alternative plan, which has taken advantage of the capacities of universities, research institutes, DoE and FRWO.

Nobakht added that various factors have been taken into consideration in formulating the alternative plan that on the top of that is biological capacity and socio-economic issues.

He further described the formation of local cooperatives, the creation of micro-credit funds, the formation of tourist groups, and banning cultivation in the steep slopes as the other important achievements of this project that will be utilized in the alternative plan.

CHFP provided the basis for the participation of local communities

Ms. Razina Bilgrami United Nations Development Program (UNDP) interim Resident Representative at the Steering Committee meeting while expressing her regret about the recent flood in the country thanked the project team, FRWO and all line ministries for their valuable contributions and referred to the valuable achievements of the projects in the five years of its lifetime and called for its replecation by FRWO for the sustainability of the results of the project.

In this meeting, Dariush Bayat, National Project Manager, presented a brief report of the project's achievements, outlining the role of UNDP and the global environment facilities (GEF) in the implementation phase as well as the achievments of the project. He said that CHFP is a new forest management model, which has been implemented in 4 pilot sites in the northern forest with an areas of 30,000 hectares in the form of community-based forestry.

According to the meeting, CHFP that has now come to an end after five years would be extended with a mutual consent reached by the Iranian government and UNDP.