سازمان منابع طبیعی و آبخیزداری کشور

Head of FRWO announced that FRWO has reduced use the bitumen mulches by half. 

According to FRWO's website quoted from Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Massoud Mansour n the ceremony of The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought held at conference hall of FRWO Headquarters on Saturday, referred to environmental concerns about the use bitumen mulch to establish moving sand dunes, and said: "Based on these environmental concerns, FRWO suspended the plan for a period of one year and called academies, institutions and experts for reviewing the indicators of the use bitumen mulch".  

Mansour reiterated that with the cooardination of FRWO with the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, the use of alternative mulches was quickly studied, and two types of mulch have been confirmed for use, which can enter the implementation phase. 

He noted: "As FRWO no longer receive oil mulch for free, these two types of mulch are also economical and FRWO can use them extensively to establish moving sand dunes this year".

He stated that based on a report released in 2017, some 37 million hectares of lands of the country; equal to 23 percent of the total area of the country are at risk of destruction and degradation.