Landscapes Forest and Global Change - ESA - Escola Superior ...

E. Kouhgardi & M. Akbarzadeh 2010. Role of planted forests and trees outside forests in sustainable forest management
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depend increasingly on marginal lands, at the expense of former forest and rangelands for their
crop production.
Response capacity to forest and range misuse issues: The response capacity is weak because:
Inability to react on a timely basis to misuse and calamity impacts, for lack of timely and
reliable data and information; Top-down approach adopted to trigger community involvement in
the process of natural resources rehabilitation has not set in motion the required sense of
ownership of, and responsibility for, the resource that may lead to sustainable success; and
Some gaps in knowledge related to natural resources, participatory procedures.
Legal/regulatory tools did not incorporate the human dimension and consequently failed to
promote the protection and sustainable management of the land resources; The form of
conservatism that prevails within the forestry and range sector makes it impossible to delegate
fully the responsibility to its traditional users to administer, manage and sustain the resource;
and Despite commendable efforts, the government’s commitment to sustainable natural
resources management remains insufficient.
The main direct causes to deforestation and range degradation are: climatic conditions, which
limit vegetation’s establishment and resilience and constitute hostile conditions for
rehabilitation; accentuated topography, which triggers acute erosion processes; properties of soil
which often hamper the emergence and survival of natural regeneration; natural destructive
calamities, such as floods, wind, temperature and drought extremes; and pests and diseases.
Allocation of forest, woodland and rangeland for the purpose of agricultural and urban
development; Misuse of forest resources through excessive fuel wood, construction, wood
gathering, grazing and browsing; Misuse of rangeland resources resulting from increased
livestock numbers, well beyond carrying capacity; Inadequate agricultural practices, particularly
abusive utilization of unsuitable farm machinery for subsistence shifting cultivation combined
with “free grazing” on marginal steep sloped lands; Agricultural land abandonment;
Infrastructure construction; and Man-made catastrophes such as fires, wars, refugee influxes.
Deforestation and degradation result in loss of land productivity, which is translated by decline
in biomass, in species diversity and in genetic resource; decline in habitat caused by loss of
vegetative cover, erosion, salinization, water logging, lowering of water tables ; and soil erosion
increase.
Natural resources degradation results in poverty expansion. Besides the traditional “underclass”
often identified among forest and rangeland dwellers, the new population groups affected by
poverty are the rural-to-urban migrants, the landless and near landless, the disabled, and the
rural female group. The collapse of various production systems, which are not economically
viable anymore, forces more rural population to migrate to cities. Regarding the extent of
deforestation, clearing forest for agriculture, forage production and firewood and charcoal has
reduced forests by 30 % over the last 40 years.
4. Discussion
4.1 Development choices
Iranian foresters have gained much valuable experience in such fields as sand dune fixation,
mangrove regeneration, poplar and other fast-growing species plantation, management of nonwood
forest products, development of extensive urban and peri-urban forests, development of
intermediary forms of participation to forest and range sustainable management ; Despite
imposing resource rehabilitation programs, government has not significantly and sustainable
contributed to poverty alleviation among forest and rangeland dwellers; Following
nationalization of all lands, rapid population growth as well as unsustainable human activities
and other natural causes, Iranian forests and rangelands have lost very substantial areas in the
last decades.
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.