Land grabbing with a completely legal appearance; judicial ruling issued allowing thousands of hectares of northern Iran’s forests to be designated as endowment

The Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic confirmed a deed of endowment for 5,600 hectares of forest habitats in Mazandaran, ruling to hand over these lands to the person holding the endowment.

Iranian domestic news agencies reported that following several court proceedings based on a complaint filed by the Mazandaran Natural Resources and Watershed Management Department, the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic ultimately issued a ruling that results in the seizure of the best forests near the city of Sari, determining these forests to be endowed according to a document presented by an individual.

This action led some news agencies and news websites to refer to it as forest grabbing and the exploitation of legal contradictions to seize national lands.

Mohsen Mousavi, director general of Mazandaran’s Natural Resources and Watershed Management Department, stating that the land in question belongs to one of the province’s best forests in the village of Aghmashhad, said: “The endowment’s custodian has the right to request the land and cut trees, but from our perspective, the endowment of these forests is suspicious, and we await a re-examination.”

Reza Afllatoni, director general of the Legal Affairs Office of the Forest Organization, also in a conversation with another domestic Iranian news agency, described this action as “land grabbing with a completely legal appearance” and said that such rulings are issued when a person or organization has legal backing to seize government and national lands, or seizes national lands by exploiting gaps and contradictions in the law.

The transfer of thousands of hectares of forests in northern Iran to individuals comes at a time when Iran’s forest cover has been severely damaged due to natural and human-caused harm, including droughts, deforestation, land-use changes, and fires, and requires strict protection. The destruction of vegetation cover in Iran’s natural areas has caused various environmental crises, including increased flooding and dust storms.

The environmental crisis in Iran has long drawn the attention of the international community. U.S. officials have repeatedly warned about Iran’s mismanagement of natural resources, extensive forest grabbing, and unnecessary and unplanned dam construction, aimed at filling the pockets of corrupt officials of the Islamic Republic regime, and have listed it as one of the main factors behind various environmental crises, including devastating floods and unprecedented droughts..

For example, recently Brian Hook, the U.S. Special Representative for Iran Affairs, noting that 600 dams have been built in Iran after the revolution “without any environmental assessment,” announced that the Islamic Republic regime has destroyed the country’s water resources through mismanagement over the past forty years..

Source: Voice of America