Fire and corruption ravage Iran’s ancient Hyrcanian forests

Iran’s ancient Hyrcanian Forests are being devastated by wildfires and long-term corruption, reported The New York Times, Arab news and multiple environmental and regional outlets in  November.

Wildfires and decades of systemic mismanagement are now threatening the survival of the ancient Hyrcanian Forests – a unique natural heritage spanning northern Iran. The once lush, UNESCO listed woodlands, believed to be between 25 and 50 million years old, are being destroyed by a deadly combination of criminal plunder, official negligence, and environmental catastrophe.

The government is still dealing with the effects of a 12-day war in June, when strikes by Israel and the United States hit its nuclear and military sites. Iran’s economic troubles have worsened after failing to reach a new nuclear deal, which led to the return of U.N. sanctions.

The wildfire tore through a part of the forest in Mazandaran Province, and a local natural resources protection unit told state media on Sunday that firefighters had contained 80 percent of the fire. The blaze is believed to be man-made and spread rapidly in the drought-stricken province, according to state media.

The most recent blaze began in early November near the village of Elit in Mazandaran Province. It briefly appeared under control before reigniting on November 15, spreading rapidly across steep, densely wooded terrain under unusually dry, hot, and windy conditions.

The Hyrcanian Forests, which blanket a strip of mountains and coastline along the Caspian Sea between Azerbaijan and Iran, have origins that date back 25 to 50 million years, according to UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency. The woodlands are a critical habitat for many birds and mammals, including the endangered Persian leopard, and host many species of rare trees, some of them hundreds of years old.

“Hyrcanian Forests are among the oldest and most biodiverse ecosystems across the globe,” said Mojtaba Sadegh, a climate and wildfire expert at Boise State University. Such a blaze in late autumn, he said, points to the “increasing vulnerability of Hyrcanian Forests to intense fire activity” even beyond the hottest summer months. Iranians are increasingly anxious over the compounding effect of climate change in the country.

Iran, according to climate experts, is warming faster than the global average, and temperatures this summer repeatedly soared up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Poor water and agricultural management have aggravated the effects of climate change, according to policy experts.

Water shortages have been so severe that supplies in the capital have been rationed for weeks, and officials have called on the population to pray for rain.

Satellite imagery from NASA suggests that nearly 1,500 acres of the Hyrcanian Forests have burned in the fire, which has stoked an uproar among some Iranians, who took to social media to criticize the government for what they said was a very slow response in working to preserve a national treasure.

“We cannot let government negligence and indifference destroy any more of Iran’s national heritage,” Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian activist and a Nobel laureate, wrote on X. She urged the United Nations and other international agencies to support local environmental activists battling the blaze.

After weeks of firefighting, the head of Iran’s forest authority told Iran Times the “main phase of the blaze” is now extinguished though he refused to reveal the full extent of the damage. “State TV should not make the sweetness of such management bitter for people’s taste,” he said, declining to disclose the losses.

Over decades, vast areas of the forests have been carved up by illegal logging, land-grabbing and speculative development, often with the collusion or wilful blindness of local and national authorities.

The outcome has been calamitous: tree cover across the Hyrcanian region has shrunk drastically. What was once a sprawling 3.5 million hectares of woodland in the 1950s is now believed to cover less than 1.6 million hectares which is a loss of more than half the original forest.

More than 2,300 fires have been recorded nationwide this year alone, a 12 percent rise compared with last year. Nationwide, the burned area is now measured in tens of thousands of hectares.

In response to the crisis, Iranian authorities have imposed a blanket closure on public access to most of the country’s forests, including the Hyrcanian woodlands, and other vulnerable areas such as the Zagros Mountains and Arasbaran forests, until significant rainfall returns. Firefighters remain on high alert for new flare-ups, while local councils have been instructed to prepare emergency stations and mobilise volunteers.

Without serious changes in how Iran manages its forests, the Hyrcanian Forests, home to thousands of species could be lost forever.

The New York Times, Iran Times, Tehran Times, Radiozamaneh, National Council of Resistance of Iran, Arab News, Maghreb.org