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Environmental damage costs Iran $8 billion a year
Iran: a model for reversing desertification
Written by Gary Lewis
According to the current trend of climate change, if no immediate action is taken, Iran will face hotter and drier weather in the future, and hundreds of thousands of people will be seriously affected.
According to national statistics, Iran has a land area of 165 million hectares, of which 32 million are desert. There are no reliable statistics on the extent of desertification in Iran over the past half century. But its effects are clear: water shortages, desert encroachment on pastures and urban settlements, and sandstorms.
If no remedial measures are taken, Iran’s desert area will expand significantly in the future, threatening the sustainable livelihoods of citizens everywhere, especially pastoral residents.
Once renowned for their natural beauty, pasture plains across Iran have now become severely degraded due to unsustainable use and drought. Causes include overgrazing, felling of trees for fuel, and erosion of fragile shrubs. Many pastures have actually turned into hostile environments, and locals face a hopeless future where they cannot easily make a living and are therefore forced to leave.
Many rangeland residents have already left, migrating across the country in search of work. If desertification is not stopped, there will be more migration and displacement, with all the attendant problems.
However, there is hope and evidence that if we act now and work with local communities, we can reverse the trend of desertification and restore the beauty of Iran’s rangelands and the livelihoods of its inhabitants.
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