Iran's Hyrcanian Forests Added to UNESCO World Heritage List

According to FRWO’s website, Kamran Pourmoghaddam, head of FRWO's High Council taking part in the event, said that the Hyrcanian forests of I. R. of Iran was added to natural heritage list on Friday during annual meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Baku- Azerbaijan.

 In its Friday statement announcing the decision, UNESCO said the forests have “remarkable floristic biodiversity.” The region is also known to be hosting a wide variety of animal species - including 296 bird and 98 mammal species - and some 150 plant species.

The head of High Council of FRWO also stated that the forests registered as the UNESCO World Heritage site, is located in five provinces of Golestan, Mazandaran, Gilan, Semnan and North Khorasan with an area of ​​about 307,000 hectares.

He added that the high ecological value and natural history of this area led to the approval of Hyrcanian forests at the 43rd UNESCO meeting, as the 24^th recognized World Heritage Sites in Iran.

Pourmoghaddam said that according to IUCN assessment, the nominated areas are fully consistent with the indicators and have a unique high floristic and biodiversity values for inscription as the world natural heritage.

The 43rd session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee commenced on June 30 and will continue until July 10, gathering as much as 2,500 delegates from more than 180 countries representing foreign states and international organizations.