Head of Forests, Rangelands and Watershed Organization said a unit of armed forces would be assigned to preserve and oversee natural resources and terrains by the yearend (March 21, 2006).
As reported by ILNA, Khodakaram Jalali stated that the forest rangers would be set up once the Armed Forces Headquarters gives the go-ahead.
The official recalled that the plan for conservation of domestic forests was ratified by the cabinet in 2004, based on which various schemes have been worked out for protection, revival, development and prudent exploitation of national woods.
He stressed that the most important scheme has been adopted to drive livestock and dwellers out of Caspian forests in northern Iran and settle them in other areas.
“Roughly 7,000 households and 2.4 million head of cattle should be moved out of northern forests during the Fourth Five-Year Development Plan (2005-2010),“ Jalali expanded.
He put the annual fund required for the purpose at 300 billion rials.
“Some six billion rials was allocated for implementation of the plan in the first year (2005), of which three billion rials has been disbursed from provincial funds,“ the official explained.
Highlighting the importance of preserving Caspian forests, Jalali insisted that the plan should be considered as a national scheme to garner all-out support from the officialdom.
Meanwhile, an official with Kohkiloyeh-Boyerahmad Natural Resources Department stated that 42 public groups with 300 members are engaged in protecting provincial woods along with the department’s rangers.
Head of department’s Public Relations Office told IRNA that the main responsibilities of the teams are preventing degradation of trees, averting probable fire in natural terrains as well as planting saplings.
Saeed Nazari complained that the budget allocated for conservation of natural resources in this southwestern province falls short of the needs.

Information Dissemination Committee of a conference themed “Air Pollution and Its Health Impacts“ stated that over 70 percent of trees alongside Tehran highways are semi-dead due to accumulation of harmful particles on the surface of their leaves and twigs, IRNA reported.
Due to high air pollution, the flora species compatible with Tehran’s climate have gradually changed from wide-leaf deciduous trees to needle-leave plants, the committee reported.
Tehran, once famous for its plane trees, has today become the city of semi-dead pines, it added.
It added that the shift aggravates air pollution, because the needle leaves are far less capable of purifying air compared to wide leaves.
It added that the smog in the air causes yellow spots to form on needle leaves, making them experience early autumnal changes. Hence the trees do not have a sufficient number of leaves for producing food as a result of which the roots are damaged and the plant becomes vulnerable to insect attacks.
The conference which will be held in Tehran on Feb. 20-22 is organized by Health Ministry, Department of Environment and Iran University of Iran Medical Sciences.

Leader’s representative and Friday prayer leader of Rasht called on the head of Department of Environment to take specific measures to revive the two important rivers of Gilan, Zarjoub and Gohar-Roud, which are seriously threatened by various sources of pollution, ISNA reported.
At a meeting with DoE chief, Ayatollah Qorbani highlighted the necessity of making investments to preserve Gilan environment and attain sustainable agriculture, highlighting the necessity of preserving rivers and protecting their environs.
Criticizing improper garbage disposal in Saravan district, which is a menace to both the environment and the public health, he proposed that compost plants be founded in different parts of the province.
Meanwhile, Fatemeh Vaez Javadi, head of the DoE, demanded more cooperation by executive managers to prevent environmental degradation.
“Forests and wetlands in Gilan deserve serious attention as symbols of national environment and should be preserved for the benefit of the posterity,“ she said.
Vaez Javadi warned that the discharge of wastewater into water reserves threaten the fish as well as the food cycle. She also blamed unfettered fishing for endangering the Caspian sturgeons.
She insisted that waste material is a valuable resource and called on authorities to encourage source separation of garbage through educational and cultural programs.

A mud emitting crater in Chabahar, Sistan-Bluchestan province

The Iran Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization has submitted a proposal to UNESCO to register the mud eruption springs, known as Gelfeshan, in the southern port city of Chabahar in its World Heritage List, said a top provincial official.
Director General of Sistan-Baluchestan Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department, Hassan Sargazi, told IRNA that the springs, a unique geological phenomenon, have distinctive features.
He proposed that the site be turned into the Middle East’s second geo-park and introduced as a world heritage.
“Once registered in the world list, the site will enjoy UNESCO’s investment and technical assistances. This will not only bring in dollar revenues, but also foster regional development,“ he added.
Gelfeshan Spring demonstrates morphologic characteristics and tectonic activities in the area and the substances jetting out of it provide information on the condition of subterranean water and oil reserves.
The small hills, in a vast plain known as Kahir, northwest of Chabahar, erupt gray mud along with gas emissions through their craters which are recognizable from a far distance.
The erupting mud has shaped a cone-shaped gray hill of mud. No plant species can grow in this type of soil.

One hundred and eighty white-eared bulbuls were retrieved from a bird shop in the city of Shoushtar in southern Khuzestan province, Public Relations Office of the provincial Department of Environment reported, according to IRNA.
The shop owner who was engaged in the illicit trade of the wild songbirds was detained by police and delivered to legal authorities.
The birds were freed into the wild in the city’s Jihad Martyrs Park. Hunting of the indigenous bulbuls and other birds is illegal in Khuzestan province.

Nature in west of Mazandaran province (Photo by Amir Mokhtarizadeh)

Global warming could slash the flows of rivers around the Mediterranean basin, Amazonia and the US Midwest, a phenomenon that could have resounding impacts on cities and agriculture, British scientists said, AFP reported.
If the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming continue their unbraked rise, rivers in many regions of the world will be greatly affected by the end of the 21st century, said the Hadley Center, part of the UK Met Office (meteorological service).
“There are large predicted reductions in river flow across much of Europe, North Africa, Midwest America and northern South America, whilst large increases in river flow occur in West Africa, northern China and the boreal regions,“ they said.
Scientist Vicky Pope said farmers and cities which depended on rivers for irrigation, transport and water supply “could be seriously affected,“ although further work was needed to predict the impact more accurately.
The findings come from a new computer model, HadGEM1, put together by the center, located in the southwestern English city of Exeter. The model is crunched by one of the world’s most powerful super-computers, capable of two million calculations per second.
Such power is essential for figuring out the impact of a wide range of variables, such as winds, rainfall patterns, ocean temperatures, soil and vegetation.
Under the so-called business-as-usual scenario, emissions of carbon dioxide would continue to rise, causing global temperatures by the end of the century to rise by 3.4 C. This will have an impact not only on rainfall and other weather patterns, but also on vegetation, the researchers said.
More CO2 causes the stomata, the leaf pores through which plants and trees breathe, to close up. As a result, the plants transpire less and give up less moisture, which they take from the ground, to the atmosphere. As a result, more water goes into the soil and ultimately ends up in rivers, increasing the flow.
The Hadley researchers also concluded that there has already been a significant increase in flows into the Arctic Ocean from six big Siberian rivers--the Yenisey, Lena, Ob, Kolyma, Pechora and Dvina.
That finding backs a study by University of Southampton oceanographers which reported a slowdown in the warm current that bathes Northwestern Europe, giving the region a relatively balmy climate for its northerly latitude.
The trend could lead to a plunge in regional temperatures a decade from now, they said.
The “brakes“ acting on this current are an inrush of freshwater from the Arctic Ocean, that study suggested.

Australia's camel population is increasing by up to 100,000 annually.

An Alice Springs scientist has warned that stretches of central Australia could come to resemble the deserts of the Middle East, if the wild camel population is not managed properly, ABC reported.
Researchers and landholders are among delegates meeting in Alice Springs to look at management options for camels.
Glenn Edwards from the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service says Australia’s camel population is increasing by up to 100,000 a year, but only about 2,000 are being used commercially.
He says it is putting a strain on the environment.
“Let’s face it, the deserts we have here, we call them deserts but you know they’re really paradises in some way for camels because they’re quite well vegetated,“ he said.
“They’re not like the Sahara Desert for example, but if we let things go unchecked with camels, well who knows, we might be looking at true deserts at some stage down the track.“
Edwards says culling is one option, but stakeholders like indigenous communities want to avoid that.
Edwards says other possible options include fencing off sensitive areas.

A worker shovels shark fins at a warehouse in Hong Kong.

Delegates hoping to sample some of Hong Kong’s gastronomic delights during the World Trade Organization
(WTO) summit this week have received a stark message from activists: keep away from shark’s fin, AFP reported.
An environmental pressure group, Hong Kong People’s Council for Sustainable Development, urged the 11,000 delegates and journalists attending the trade talks to avoid the luxury dish in the city’s high-end Chinese restaurants, the South China Morning Post reported.
The popularity of the delicacy--usually served in a soup--is blamed for over-fishing of shark, which has reduced many species to near extinction.
The council also demanded the WTO impose restrictions on the sale of shark’s fin in line with CITES rules, which govern trade in endangered species.
“We hope the WTO rules can be adjusted in line with these international conventions,“ council chairman Albert Lai was quoted as saying in the report.
Hong Kong is the center of the world’s shark’s fin trade--some 80 percent of all fins sold on the world market come through here.
Environmentalists say shark’s fins are harvested inhumanely in a process called “finning“ in which fishermen hack off the limbs of live sharks and dump their bodies back to sea to die.
Although tasteless, the gelatinous dish’s high price makes it a status symbol and its consumption is considered a mark of wealth.