سازمان منابع طبیعی و آبخیزداری کشور

Head of FRWO said that alternative plan for Sustainable Hyrcanian Forest Management Program has been notified and the implementation of the first phase of this plan will be started in July 2021.

According to FRWO's website, quoted from Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Dr. Massoud Mansour Deputy Minister and Head of FRWO in a meeting with Dr. Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, Vice President and Head of Management and Planning Organization (MPO) which was held at FRWO's Headquarters on Monday, noted that the area of natural and planted forests in Iran is about 15 million hectares and total area of Iran's rangelands is about 83 million ha and reiterated: "About 2 million hectares are prone to desertification and soil erosion reaches 15.6 tons per hectare in the country annually".   

He stated: "There are nearly 450 cities with the highest flood risk in our country, and in the last 20 years, nearly 3,500 flash flooding affected many Iran parts".

 He said that "450 cities in Iran are at risk of floods and also during the last 20 years more than 3,500 floods were occurred in the country. Our estimates - which, of course, have not yet been updated at the current dollar price - show that each flood will cause about 400 billion RLs damage to the country".

Mansour stating that 13.5 million hectares are prone to wind erosion said: " Iran experinces water evaporation 10 percent more than global average. The air temperature in the country has increased by two degrees Celsius in the last 50 years".

In another part of his speech, Head of FRWO stating that 409 plains in Iran are banned said: "Contrary to the reality, phenomenon of land subsidence is less considered to present a challenge to the country. At present, in some areas of the country, there is between 10 and 30 centimeters of land subsidence per year".

Based on the estimates, the implementation of watershed management and aquifer management is able to store about 311 million cubic meters of water and reduce one to two tons of soil erosion annually. During the last year, about 1.2 million hectares of watershed management and aquifer management were carried out in the country.