Sustainable Management of Land and Water Resources of Hableh Roud Project (Review of the First Phase)

In The Nnae Of God Sustainable Management of Land and Water Resources of Hableh Roud Project (Review of the first phase) Forests, Range & Watershed Management Organization Deputy Of Watershed Management Title: Review of the first phase By: Forests, Range & Watershed Management Organization/ Deputy Of Watershed Management/ Sustainable Management of Land and Water Resources of Hableh Roud Project Author: Mohammad Salmani Moghadam, Mohammad Raza Mansouri, Hooshang Jazi Editor: Zohreh Jamshidi Translator: Masumeh Nasiri Designed by: Dariush Golesorkhi Printed by: Pooneh Publishing Address: Forests, Range & Watershed Management Organization, After Mini City, Artesh Boulvard. Tehran Zip Code: 1955756113 Tel: 22488572 Sustainable Management of Land and Water Resources of Hableh Roud Office Review of the first phase of Hableh Roud Project 3 Abstract Since 1998, the project of sustainable management of land and water resources of Hablehroud has been started based on the agreement between the Government of the Islamic republic of Iran and the United Nations Development Program with the aim of achieving sustainable management of land and water resources of the country. Based on the agreements, Hablehroud watershed was selected as a pilot to do this project; the total area of this watershed is 1265977 ha and is located between two provinces of Tehran and Semnan. The project documentation was been on the agenda as one of the executive actions of the document, the methodology of this action is based on the document studies such as: reviewing documents, reports and the information sources on the project office, field study, interviews, questionnaires completed by directors, experts and dwelling villagers in the pilot areas. This report was developed in four sections as following: In the first section, the objectives, programs and the study areas of Hablehroud project were introduced and theoretical issues, the reasons for selecting the watershed, organizing works and how to select pilot villages were considered. In the second section, activities, performance and achievements were considered and the studies, management system, executive actions and financial performance of the project were evaluated. In the third section, the results of project implementation about controlling land and water resources degradation, improving vegetation cover, improving lives of watershed residents, increasing people participation and … were considered. In the forth section, conclusions and recommendation were presented. The project was based on increasing people participation, making intersectional coordination, and implementing the sample activities to increase the productivity of production systems, increase income, and make job opportunity, and conservation and sustainability of natural resources and environment. Investigations show the relative success of the project in attracting public participation, making community based organization, making job opportunities, increasing production, floods control, and pastures restoration, but, more attention is required for making intersectional coordination, designing monitoring and evaluation system, making local institution in the watershed, comprehensive training for staffs and expanding more NGOs, that this has been considered on the second phase document in order to develop and provide a model for sustainable management of land and water resources integrating the first phase achievements and second phase experiences. 1. Introduction Land degradation is a widespread problem in Iran that affected the most parts of the country. Loss of soil resources fertility caused by inappropriate changes on its biological, chemical, physical and hydrological characteristics which in turn increases soil erosion in sensitive areas, decrease of the quality and quantity of natural biomass (forest and pasture resources) and vegetation cover, decrease of the quality or quantity of surface water and groundwater and increase the risk of damages in downstream caused by floods, and inappropriate management of soil and water in fertile lands (irrigating lands or dry farming lands) are some of the conditions in the watersheds of the country that caused to undesirable consequences, 4 Review of the first phase of Hableh Roud Project so that “annual deforestation is 130000 hectares, the number of animals in the pastures are 3 times of the capacity of the pasture and annual soil erosion is 2.5 billion cubic meter”1. Inappropriate management of soil and water in fertile lands (irrigated or dry farming lands) of the watershed across the country cause to adverse consequences, so that “130000 ha of forests are destroyed annually, the number of available animal in pastures are three times of their capacity, and 2.5 billion cubic meter of soil is eroded annually”.2 Already, rural areas are facing with some of problems to achieve to sustainable development, that lack of sustainability on using land and water resources is the main one. These are due to three main problems such as: poverty, less management and people participation in rural areas. Therefore, in order to sustainable use of rural resources and achieve to sustainable development, people participation should be attracted and the main goal of programs should be on the basis of poverty reduction through making job opportunities, increasing production and income, and in the following sustainable management that could support this process should be made in this areas. Unless people participation, land and water resources conservation will be costly and take a long time while protection of executed projects would be difficult, therefore, it is required to participate people in conserving natural resources and watershed management. In order to fulfill this important goal, one joint project was developed between Islamic Republic of Iran and United Nations Sustainable Development (UNDP) to achieve a method for people participation in sustainable management of land and water resources and make a pilot model in the basis of implemented works that would be converted into a national model by the ex-management and planning organization if it was being successful. Therefore, in order to fulfill the above goal, a document underlying one national action program for sustainable management of land and water resources was regulated and three sample executive project with reciprocal relationship with each other such as combating desertification, watershed management and irrigation systems improvement along with financial and technical aids of UNDP and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) were executed to show its execution feasibility. It was decided that three above mentioned projects would investigate social, technical and environmental issues of Hableh Roud watershed using an integrated procedure. The main purpose of this National Action Program (NAP) corresponding to convention of combating desertification of United Nations is to increase soil productivity and conservation and sustainable management of land and water resources in Islamic Republic of Iran which will improve life conditions especially for rural communities3. Documents of the activities of above mentioned project in the first phase (1998 to 2004) are presented in the following. 2. Documentation The first phase of sustainable management of land and water resources of Hableh Roud project was started with development of the four documents for projects such as umbrella, watershed management, combating desertification, and sustainable agriculture development project. One of the key measures that must be done in this phase was documentation of the project implementation that was less considered by authorities due to different reasons. However, documentation was referred in prepared documents of the first phase. Paragraph 9 of the document of umbrella or coordination project was assigned for presenting “a report for project”. Therefore, project report writing based 1. The main document of Hablehroud project- page 7, 1997 2. The main document of Hablehroud project- page 7, 1997 3. The main document of Hablehroud project, page 5, 1997 Review of the first phase of Hableh Roud Project 5 on the “frameworks of United Nations development programs” was asked in paragraph 1-9 and 2-9 of the document, and project implementers were asked to consider the documentation of whatever happened in the project. In the document of watershed management consists of four main goals, in the fourth goal was considered for “the process of collecting and analyzing data” that “collection and documentation of activities and collection and documentation of data” were emphasized in its first and second activities. In the document of combating desertification that consists of four goals as well as watershed management, the first activity of its second goal assign to “publication of project results” that emphasize on project documentation. But, documentation was not referred in document of sustainable agriculture development project in Garmsar. It is attempted to consider all resources, documents, information, reports, and studies in preparing the documentation report, and the information gaps will be completed through field studies and interview with directors, experts, and all individual involved in the project in national, provincial, and local offices. The last step, by visiting the pilot villages, villagers and executed projects will be visited and the final report will be completed through negotiation with local communities. In this regard, Mr. Ferdoosi, Mr. Kamyab

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