Continued Concealment and Contradictions by Rouhani Government Regarding Mount Damavand Endowment and Sari Forests
One week after Hassan Rouhani called the endowment of part of Mount Damavand a “rumor,” an official from his government implicitly confirmed the endowment while simultaneously deeming it “insignificant.” Isa Kalantari, head of the Organization for the Protection of the Environment, said on Monday, Mordad 13, in an online conference, that the endowment of the “slopes of Mount Damavand” dates back 400 years and “does not even reach 100 hectares,” stating that regarding the Aq Mashhad forest in Sari, 400 hectares of its rangelands have also been endowed.
Concealment by the Rouhani Government!
Although the head of the Organization for the Protection of the Environment attempted to portray the endowment of these two natural resource areas as less than reality, his statement at least demonstrated that the endowment of both the Damavand area and the northern forests was indeed valid.
Last week, the news of the endowment of one of Mount Damavand’s slopes was met with reactions from users in cyberspace. Islamic Republic officials, in order to conceal the matter, denied the endowment of these two areas. Even Hassan Rouhani had called the raising of the Damavand and Sari forests endowment issue “enemy propaganda.”
The contradictions in the statements of Islamic Republic officials stand in contrast to documents that show the endowment of several parcels and one slope of Mount Damavand, from base to summit—a mountain that, as one of Iran’s symbols, was registered as the first natural national monument on the national heritage list 18 years ago.
A Green Light for Land Grabbers
Environmental activists, including Mohammad Darwish, have stated that the Malar pasture in question extends to an altitude of 5,100 meters and close to the summit.
Mohammad Darwish said: “Mount Damavand is not for sale or purchase and no one has ever owned it, and it is impossible for someone to endow a place that has no private owner. Therefore, this entire matter is strange. If the endowment organization can declare part of Damavand as an endowment, this is a green light for land grabbers, mountain grabbers, and forest grabbers.”
In recent weeks, the provincial director general of natural resources and watershed management of Mazandaran announced the confirmation of the endowment of 5,600 hectares of Aq Mashhad forests in Sari by the Supreme Court and stated that the endowment authority has requested tree cutting.
The director general of the legal affairs office of the Organization of Forests and Pastures also considered this action “land grabbing with a completely legal appearance” and said that such arrangements are issued when a person or agency has legal backing for usurping state and national lands or exploits legal defects and contradictions to seize national lands.
The transfer of thousands of hectares of forests in northern Iran and Damavand to individuals under the pretext of endowment occurs at a time when the environmental crisis in Iran has long captured the attention of the international community. United States officials have repeatedly warned about Iran’s mismanagement of natural resources, widespread forest plundering, and unnecessary and unplanned dam construction, aimed at filling the pockets of corrupt Islamic Republic officials, and have listed it as a main factor in the emergence of 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 since 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: Radio Farda
