TEHRAN – On Sunday, Azerbaijan’s Hirkan Forest made it onto the United Nation’s list for Natural World Heritage as an extension to Iran’s previously designated Hyrcanian Forests.

The designation was made in the extended 45th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Sources say the jigsaw of the unique Hyrcanian Forests is finally completed by approving that prolonged effort.

In 2019, Iran gained UNESCO designation of its Hyrcanian Forests at the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee, making it the second such Iranian natural site after Lut Desert, which was granted the tag in 2016.

Hyrcanian (Hirkan) Forests form a green arc of deciduous mixed broad-leaved forests stretching across some 850 kilometers along the Caspian Sea, from the Talish Mountains in the Republic of Azerbaijan across the Alborz Mountains all the way to Iran’s Golestan province.

As the main climatic barrier and watershed between the Caspian Sea and the arid Irano-Turanian Plateau, the steep ridges of the Talish and Alborz mountain systems serve as an insuperable barrier of moist air accumulated above the Caspian Sea. As a result, there is ample precipitation feeding many rivers and creeks rapidly flowing down steep slopes and mountain gorges into the Caspian Sea. Thus, the Hirkan Forests (sometimes also referred to as “Caspian Forests”), are metaphorically squeezed in between the “claws” of the Caspian Sea and arid drylands.

According to UNESCO, the forest contains the most significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation. It also contains superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.

AFM