Forests: A treasure from Iran’s natural history

IRAN DAILY

Iran is known as a main land between Inner Asia, Arabia Peninsula, India and Mesopotamia, which has been always attractive because of its history, cultural richness, natural beauties and sightseeings, as well as being a connecting bridge between Asia and Europe.

The country is a Middle East nation, extending over 1,648,000 sq.km of land. It shares boundaries in the north with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, in the east with Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the west with Turkey and Iraq, and the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman in the south.

This land has a special position in the Northern Hemisphere because of its rich vegetation and plant diversity, in particular because of its role as a connecting bridge between Europe and Asia.

Hence, forests of Iran are a treasure from its natural history in the hands of the present generation.

Forests, as the richest and complex terrestrial ecosystems, illustrate the past of a country not only from a natural science point of view, but also from historical and cultural aspects.

They are among the oldest forests in Asia and the Northern Hemisphere but unfortunately are not that well-known internationally.

Some people think that Iran is a dry country covered with deserts and sand dunes, in which only camels are moving around. Some others are informed about the mountains and their high peaks, and again others think that Iran is just rich of oil and natural gas resources and they have no idea about the nature of this land.

Iran and Turkey possess the most extensive forest areas in West Asia, while Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are typical examples of low-forest cover countries in Central Asia.

In the north of Iran, the Caspian coast is characterized by the Euxino-Hyrcanian sub-humid forest vegetation of the Euro-Siberian region. One of the most striking aspects concerning this region is that deciduous forests which destroyed by glacial advances in Europe and North Asia, survived in Iran. Therefore, the Hyrcanian forests are one of the last remnants of natural deciduous forests in the world.

In fact, the geological past and geographical location of Iran resulted in open landscapes with vast mountain ranges, wide plains, uncultivable deserts, forests, fertile plains and large swamps. After the Iranian plate merged with the southern shores of the Eurasian continent, tens of millions of years ago, important geographical events took place and mountain ranges emerged over several periods.

Therefore, Iran is a mountainous land with a high central plateau which is surrounded by mountains in all four geographical directions. Almost 54% of the land area is covered with mountains.

The mountainous topography results in pronounced vertical and horizontal climatic differences. While the Caspian coastal areas enjoy a milder climate, the inland plateau experiences extremes of hot summers and cold winters with limited rainfall. In addition, subtropical conditions can be found in the southern part of the country.

The Alborz Mountains begin with the Azerbaijani frontier ranges (Caucasus) in northwestern Iran and extend to its northeast, not far from the border of Turkmenistan.

This high mountain chain forms more or less an unbroken wall with over 5,000m elevations. It receives most of its precipitation from the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. Rainfall is evenly distributed over the year. The climate in the western part of the Caspian region is very humid with cold winters and without a dry period. The eastern part is humid with mild winters and a short dry period.

The Zagros region consists of the western and southern slopes of the Zagros Mountains, which run from northwestern Iran to its southeast parts, from the Turkish border to the Persian Gulf.

Along the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, there are mountain ranges which are less high than those in other parts of the country and the climate along the southern coasts is subtropical. Rainfall is limited to the winter season and does not exceed l00mm per year in most of this region. The rains are torrential and irregularly distributed. The summer is long and extremely hot and dry.

The central high plateau, a former salt lake, is very dry and forms the deserts. In some parts of this region saline soil conditions are found which form the saline deserts. The largest deserts of the country are Kavir Desert and Lut Desert.

Although the country is categorized as a dry country in general, there are various watersheds and main rivers, mostly in the northern and western parts of the country. While the central plateau, the northeastern and the southeastern regions are dry, the northern and western regions are endowed with sufficient water resources.

Iran’s climate is generally Mediterranean, but as it mentioned due to the variability in its topography a wide range of climatic conditions can be found in the country.

The vast area of the country, its diverse climate and rich diversity of plant species within different geographical regions make this part of the Middle East attractive to botanists, biologists and foresters. Although many scientists have visited the country and published some scientific articles about the vegetation of Iran, the region still remains unknown to many other interested people.

Similarity of the Caspian forests in northern Iran to those of Europe, the forests of southern Iran to those of Africa and South Asia, and the forests of western, central and eastern Iran to those of Turkey explains the relation of Iranian forests to the other forests of the world.

Forests of Iran have a long and interesting geobotanical history and could be attractive from an ecological point of view.

According to historians, the first protected forest has come into existence in Iran when Xerxes, the Achaemenid king, was passing through a beautiful cypress forest on his way to Anatolia and ordered his royal army to protect it.

In this way, the very first protected area in the world was established in Iran in the sixth century BCE.

In Iran, the Department of the Environment is in charge of managing protected areas. These areas include national parks, ecological reserves, wilderness areas and sanctuaries. The conservation of biological diversity has highest priority. Equally important is the expansion of protected areas. Rare plant species reserves, peri-urban manmade parks and protection forests are managed by the forestry sector.

The above is a lightly edited version of a chapter of ‘Forests of Iran: A Treasure from the Past, a Hope for the Future’ written by Khosro Sagheb Talebi, Toktam Sajedi and Mehdi Pourhashemi and published by Springer.