Inauguration of 863 Projects in the Natural Resources Week

Acting Head of FRWO said that some 863 projects will be inaugurated with a total budget of 4,420 billion RLs this year on the occasion of natural resources week. 

According to FRWO's website, Dr. Khosrow Shahbazi, Acting Head of FRWO in a video conference with the Director Generals of NRWDs on Natural Resources Week on Saturday said: "FRWO started tree planting campaign on December 5^th 2019 based on the recommendations of science and research bodies that proved very useful.  Otherwise we would be confronted with huge pile of these seedlings on the ground due to the unforeseen situation."

Dr. Shahbazi elaborated the idea on planting fruit trees in natural resources zones and said that no tree is unproductive from point of view of natural resources and therefore useful from different angles.

He added that species such as almond, fig, wild pear, jujube, eucalyptus, wild pistachio and oak are forest productive trees that can be planted in natural resources zones.

In another part of his video conference, he called for the wide coverage of the tree planting campaign during the natural resources week.

Dr. Shahbazi also emphasized the importance of productive landscapes including rangelands in natural resources management and the need for revisiting existing regulations for capturing these potentials especially for medicinal plants and wood farming development and said that at the moment the guidelines for wood farming development is approved aimed at reducing the pressure for wood supply and meet the demand to wood in the country due to implementation of logging ban initiative.

Acting Head of FRWO reiterated that mulching operation is carried out in hotspots based on supportive studies that prove the need to mulching. However, it is prohibited in protected areas whatsoever under any pretext.

He also considered cadastre mapping of national lands as one of the prerequisites of natural resources management and said: Cadastre mapping must be prepared with a high precision so that prevent any damage to the rights of both natural resources and people.

Mohammad Reza Tabash, MP of Ardekan constituency, who attended the video conference from Yazd said: "It is an honor for me to represent Yazd in the Parliament in the past two decades to promote the vision of forest conservation and I look forward to constant development of natural resources day by day with the unprecedented budget allocated from NDF."

He also praised the hard work of FRWO throughout the country and highlighted the role of  "green endowment" in developing natural resources and said: "Green endowment  notion should be generalized to all aspects of natural resources management including eco- tourism, tree planting, combating desertification, so that all people can have a fair share in the sustainable development of the country."