New Allocations form NDF to Revive Zagros Forests

Head of FRWO in the thirteenth session of Zagros ecosystems working group on Wednesday said that 4,800 billion RLs has been earmarked for the restoration of Zagros ecosystems from the National Development Fund this year in order to restore and develop Zagros forests through sanitary, silviculture, seeding and seedlings operations.

Khalil Aghaee, Deputy Minister and Head of Forests, Range and Watershed Management Organization (FRWO) said: “We will also establish a working group for rangeland and desert along with the IWM as well as the Hyrcanian and Zagros forest working groups to address issues relating to natural resource management.” 

According to FRWO’s website, Head of FRWO further noted that the effectiveness of natural resource and IWM projects is clear wherever they were implemented in the most provinces in the last two or three years. Due to these positive impacts, the governor generals are planning to inject more money into natural resources management in order to sustain IWM’s impacts.

The Deputy Minister pointed out that IWM projects carried out near Ilam city saved the people from flood damages. He noted that the effectiveness of IWM project near the  as well as a number of other factors convinced the Governor General of Ilam to allocate 50 billion RLs for flood control and forest fire prevention in Ilam province.

In this meeting, Aghaee once again emphasized the need for development and enrichment operations in Zagros through afforestation, reforestation and conservation of forest reserves and reiterated that based on Para B of Article 29 of Sixth National Development Plan, local people and NGOs can be contracted by FRWO for natural resources and IWM projects and noted that this legal capacity would benefit both natural resources and local people that ends up to better preservation of the resources.

He concluded that the finalization of cadastre plan, prevention of conflicts with local people about land ownership, and recruitment of new forest guards for Zagros are high on the agenda of FRWO.