The challenge facing the Zagros forests of Iran: balancing ecological preservation with local livelihoods
The forests of Zagros cover a large continuous extent of the western mountains of Iran. Also known as the ‘west oak forest’, this ecosystem is among the most important natural resources in the country. It constitutes 40 percent of Iran’s total forest cover, and regulates almost half of its freshwater.
In recent decades, the health of the region’s forests has come under threat. One major problem is the oak decline syndrome, a tree disease that has been observed since 2002. This disease, along with overgrazing by livestock, and over-exploitation by forest dwelling people, limits the capacity of the forest to regenerate. These issues are exacerbated by the climatic events that have made recent headlines in Iran, such as dust storms, wildfires, floods and drought. To date, more than one million hectares of Zagros oak stands are affected by these threats (Hosseini et al., 2017; Ahmadi et al., 2019; Delfan et al., 2021).
Public asset or traditional right?
The use of the forest by the local people has led to a conflict with the efforts of the Iranian Natural Resources Organization to protect them. In 1963, Zagros was taken into the property of the state, but local peoples’ timber extraction and grazing continued under traditional property rights. Some experts and environmental activists believe that these forests are public assets, and that they are more valuable for their biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide, including freshwater supply, dust filtration and prevention of soil erosion, than they are for meeting local communities’ material needs (Niazi and Maleknia, 2011; Khezri et al., 2017).
In fact, these groups believe that local communities’ activities and resulting degradation directly compromises the capacity of the forest to deliver these ecosystem services.
This conflict has unfortunately led to escalation. Incidences of intentional fires and forest destruction by local people have been recorded, either when using fire to clear forest for agriculture, or reacting to their rights being restricted by the government. In some cases, these conflicts have broken out among communities themselves, vying for resources. Clearly, resolution is needed. One strategy is that the government develop plans to reduce the dependence of local people on forests. The history of several decades of forest management planning in these areas shows the failure to achieve this goal.
Which measures have been taken?
One approach that has been proposed as a way to conserve the Zagros forests while meeting local peoples’ needs is participatory forest management. However, the “participatory” aspect has often been subject to misinterpretation. In many cases, the dependence of the local communities on the forest has not been reduced, but rather the plans continue to promote heavy reliance upon forest resources.
For instance, the “Toba” plan aims to develop gardens in forest areas and on sloping lands. Along with economic forestry development, these ideas are all based on the use of forest lands to provide people’s livelihood. Agroforestry, which is generally understood as the cultivation of trees in the agricultural landscape, is interpreted in reverse in Zagros, where it refers to cultivation within the forest itself. Some academics have advocated for a practice called Galazani, where animal fodder is derived from tree foliage. This practice has shaped a particular landscape in Zagros (Valipour et al., 2014). While this is promoted as a traditional forest management operation, it can change tree physiognomies and nutrient cycling, causing forest degradation, soil erosion, and water pollution.
It is argued that these models of management operations can become the basis for forest land use change. However, these measures have largely proved unsuccessful, due to social issues including conflict between Natural Resources Organization. and local people, high dependency of local people on forest resources, lack of participation and lack of attention to local communities priorities in planning (Khedrizadeh et al., 2017).
Future conservation efforts require social-ecological research
Given the lack of successful governance, and the pressing nature of the challenges, the Zagros forests require targeted research. In order to build a strong foundation of knowledge on this social-ecological system, many questions require addressing, such as:
How exactly do local communities depend on the Zagros forest? What are the key ecological and social values associated with these forests? How do socio-cultural factors influence their governance?
The answers to these questions may help to reach a management solution for Zagros. In my research stay at the SEIAS group at the Universities of Göttingen and Kassel, I study the fuel energy use of rural communities in the Zagros forests of Lorestan province, Iran.
The rural households’ energy pattern consists of variety of energy sources to meet the energy requirement. In this research, we study factors affecting the fuel energy pattern of three different groups of rural households:
Group 1) Villages without access to alternative energy sources and wood is their main source of energy.
Group 2) Villages that have access to kerosene and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
Group 3) Villages with access to natural gas (piped gas).
Understanding the dependence on forest resources and drivers of overexploitation from the perspective of the three different user groups will help decision-makers to promote sustainable use of forest resources in the region. Further, the results can be integrated in extension and educational programs to reduce the consumption of firewood.
We are also developing a research plan to study the attitude of local people towards the values of forests, and particularly the values of sacred trees. In this study, we will especially focus on the inter-generational differences. Of additional research interest will be the attitudes of local people towards participatory management plans, and their willingness to participate in forest conservation.
Contact and further literature
Alibakhshi, Sara, Aarne Hovi, and Miina Rautiainen. 2019. “Temporal dynamics of albedo and climate in the sparse forests of Zagros.” Science of the Total Environment 663, 596–609.
Delfan, S., Badehian, Z., Zarafshar, M., & Graham, J. H. (2021). Oak decline alters leaves and fruit of Persian oak (Quercus brantii Lindl.). Flora, 284, 151926.
Hosseini, A., Hosseini, S. M., & Linares, J. C. (2017). Site factors and stand conditions associated with Persian oak decline in Zagros mountain forests. Forest systems, 26(3), e014-e014.
Khosravi, S., Maleknia, R., & Khedrizadeh, M. 2017. Understanding the contribution of non-timber forest products to the livelihoods of forest dwellers in the northern Zagros in Iran. Small-scale Forestry, 16(2), 235–248. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11842-016-9353-y#article-info
Maleknia, R., KhezriB, E., Zeinivand, H., & BadehianD, Z. 2017. Mapping Natural Resources Vulnerability to Droughts Using Multi-Criteria Decision Making and GIS (Case Study: Kashkan Basin Lorestan Province, Iran). Journal of Rangeland Science, 7(4), 376.
Valipour, A., Plieninger, T., Shakeri, Z., Ghazanfari, H., Namiranian, M. and Lexer, M.L. 2014. Traditional silvopastoral management and its effects on forest stand structure in northern Zagros, Iran, Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 327, 221–230, https://doi.org/10.1016/j
You can also find me on Research Gate. If you’re interested in further details, please leave me a comment or get in touch via email: Maleknia.r@lu.ac.ir
