TEHRAN - Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization plans to benefit from the experiences of knowledge-based companies toward preserving natural resources.

Utilizing the capacity of knowledge-based companies in the field of making systems smart, stopping the unauthorized change of use in agricultural lands and natural resources, and implementing projects to revitalize pastures have been considered, Hossein Mir-Rajabi, an official with the Organization, said.

Seven programs namely smart controlling and monitoring of natural resources, formulating and implementing the revitalization plan, enriching pastures, creating a comprehensive natural resource management system, launching a national dispatching center, manufacturing firefighting equipment domestically, developing the Internet of Things, and smart irrigating of plantations have been prepared in this regard.

The Ministry of Agriculture has allocated 311 billion rials (about $775,000) to the projects, the official added.

Nature partners

In order to educate, promote and attract people's participation, 215,240 people are trained as 'partners of nature', the Organization’s director for education, promotion, and public participation, said in November last year.

Some 83 percent of the lands are presided over by the Organization, including forests and pastures, ISNA quoted Hossein Mirzaei as saying.

On a large scale, the government is not able to manage these areas alone. Therefore, there is a need for people's participation to preserve natural resources, he added.

Nature partners are people who are mostly present in the field of natural resources, such as farmers, operators, and implementers of natural resources projects, who can help us in the protection department.

A roadmap for environmental protection has been developed, Rouhollah Naqdipour, the secretary of the strategic council of the Department of Environment, has announced.

The document presents 13 national macro strategies and 46 cross-sectoral measures for five main environmental challenges, he said, IRNA reported.

The 7-chapter book also suggests reforms for systematic purposeful solutions and policies to solve environmental issues including the water crisis, he explained.

He listed the five major environmental challenges of the country as the imbalance between water resources and consumption leading to drought, soil erosion, waste and sand and dust storms, air pollution in metropolises, destruction of biodiversity and genetic resources, and imbalance between the environment and industrial and civil development.

Knowledge-based companies

In December 2022, Reza Asadifar, an official with the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology said currently 7882 knowledge-based firms are operating in the country.

The fields of biotechnology, agriculture, food industries, chemical technologies aircraft maintenance, steel, gas, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and medicine, oil, electronics and telecommunications, information technology, and computer software are among the sectors in which researchers in technology companies are working.

Today, the country's knowledge management ecosystem accounts for more than 3 percent of the GDP. And the figure is projected to reach 5 percent, however, the main goal is to step toward a 10 percent share in GDP, the former vice president for science and technology Sourena Sattari said in February.

The share of knowledge-based companies in the country's economy has exceeded 9 quadrillion rials (about $34 billion), and since 2019, it has experienced a growth of more than 450 percent, he stated.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei designated the current Iranian year as “The Year of Production: Knowledge-Based and Job-Creating”.

Strengthening knowledge-based companies are on the agenda, raising hope for reducing obstacles on the path to development.

The Leader has called on all Iranians, including citizens and government officials, to work hard to boost knowledge-based production and create new jobs.

MG