TEHRAN – Some 150,000 people are participating in training courses in the fields of fire prevention and control to help rangers of the Department of Environment as “nature protectors”.

A total of 1,371 training courses have been held in the country over the past eight months, with 30,000 participants, Hossein Mirzaei, an official with the Forests, Range, and Watershed Management Organization (FRWMO), has said.

Forest fires are a phenomenon that has increased following climate change in the world, including Iran.

According to the FRWMO, more than 90 percent of wildfires are caused by humans.

Due to the fact that most of the fires that occur in natural resources are ignited by humans in different ways, the training is provided as regional, provincial in specific habitats, he explained, ISNA reported on Tuesday.

So far, about 150,000 people interested in natural resources have been recruited and organized as nature helpers and are undergoing relevant training, he concluded.

Lack of environmental defenders

Currently, 5,000 rangers are active to protect natural resources, however, one protection force is needed for every 2,000 hectares of forest and one protection force for every 10,000 hectares of pasture, Ali Mohammadi Moghaddam, deputy commander of the protection unit of the FRWMO said.

According to Mohammadi Moghaddam, there are currently 135 million hectares of forests and pastures in the country, with one ranger per 6,000 hectares of forest, and one ranger per 30,000 hectares of pastures.
The number of rangers in Iran is one-tenth of the global standard.

Qasem Sabz’ali, former commander of the forest protection unit of the Forests, Range, and Watershed Management Organization, said in April 2018 that some 15,000 hectares of forests burn in wildfires annually in Iran that 95 percent of them are caused by humans.

Forest wildfire brings a heavy economic burden amounting to 560 million rials (about $13,000) per hectare for the country, he added.

FB/MG