TEHRAN — The United Nations Development Programme has joined hands with Iranian experts to help safeguard Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests, northern Iran.

Listed by the World Wide Fund for Nature as a Global 200 Ecoregion, Caspian Hyrcanian Mixed Forest Ecoregion is located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and northern slopes of the Alborz Mountains. These ancient broadleaf and mixed lowland and montane forests form unique and diverse communities and house a number of endemic and endangered tree, mammal and bird species.

The director of the national multipurpose project of Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests’ management said that illegal exploitation of the forests has severely wounded them.

Daryoush Bayat added that the project has successfully paved the way for educating and ultimately mobilizing local societies to plant more trees, protect forests, and rely less on the forests financially.

“Regarding the irreparable harms the forests have come to, we have set four pilot areas to revolutionize the forests management in order to alter its current status quo,” Bayat added.

Bayat further noted that prohibiting forests exploitation and taking punitive measures against the offenders would not solely stop tree-cutting. Educating the locals and creating job opportunities by the virtue of promoting eco-tourism and producing domestic handicrafts would act as much of a deterrent against over exploitation.

In case the project comes to fruition a great deal of the problem will work itself out, he noted.

It is the right time to take some comprehensive measures to safeguard the Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests which are considered as the biggest natural museum of the world, he stated.

MQ/MG