Damavand Endowment Controversy; Mazandaran General Director of Natural Resources in Sari Dismissed

Reports indicate that the head of the Organization of Forests, Rangelands and Watershed Management of Iran, through an order, dismissed Mohsen Mousavi Takamee, the general director of natural resources in Mazandaran’s Sari region.

IRIB news agency on Monday, the 13th of Mordad, while publishing this news, reported that Ishaq Ataei replaced Mohsen Mousavi Takamee, and the introduction ceremony of the new director is scheduled for Tuesday.

The public relations manager of the general office of natural resources in Mazandaran’s Sari region stated in this regard that Mohsen Mousavi Takamee “will continue his term of service in Tehran at the discretion of the organization’s officials.”

IRIB states that during the controversy over “two files covering 5,600 hectares of forests in Aqmeshad, Sari” and also the “Damavand Peak endowment affair,” Mohsen Mousavi Takamee had a prominent media presence and numerous statements from him regarding these two files were published in the media.

On the 9th of Mordad, Mohsen Mousavi Takamee told IRIB: “In Mazandaran, we have many rangelands that are leased long-term and for 99 years through endowment deeds, and there is no supervision over them. Construction has even been done on some endowment rangelands under the pretext of long-term leases. The endowments receive land rental payments, and the rental fees are spent on charitable affairs by this institution, but the nature of the rangeland and natural resources gradually disappears and becomes compromised.”

The issue of endowing part of Mount Damavand has received widespread coverage in the media and Persian-language social networks in recent weeks.

First, the Hamshahri newspaper in Tehran reported on the 5th of Mordad that one section of the 11 sections of Mount Damavand came under the ownership of the Endowments Organization.

In response to this news, Kiomars Kalantar, Deputy of the Environmental Protection Organization of Iran, also stated that even one centimeter of Damavand’s lands cannot be transferred, and Iran’s Forest Organization also protested this transfer.

Damavand, with a height of 5,610 meters, is considered Iran’s highest mountain and has been registered in Iran’s national monuments list since 2008.

In this regard, Issa Kalantar, head of Iran’s Environmental Protection Organization, stated that in the Damavand endowment file, the slopes of this mountain have been endowed, which “totals less than 100 hectares.”

Another controversial file concerns the endowment of forests in the Aqmeshad region in Mazandaran Province, which media reported that based on a Supreme Court ruling, 5,600 hectares of these forest lands were transferred to the Endowments Office.

The Endowments and Charities Organization is a subordinate organization of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, but its head is the Supreme Leader’s representative in this organization and is appointed based on reports with the approval of the Leader.

Ali Rabiei, the public relations manager of this organization, stated on the 13th of Aban 1390 that there are 127,000 endowments in Iran and one-third of Iran’s area is endowed.

Gholamali Jafarzadeh Eminabad, representative of Rasht in the ninth parliament, in 1393 referred to the Endowments and Charities Organization as a “major land grabber” and accused this organization of “seizing national resource lands and issuing construction permits.”

Gholamali Jafarzadeh Eminabad, stating that the Endowments and Charities Organization is a major land grabber, added: “Large land grabs in our country are carried out by organizations and institutions… with the Endowments and Charities Organization at the top of them.”

Source: Radio Farda