Freie Universität Berlin Department of Political and Social Sciences Role of Governmental Policies in Forest Degradation and Sediment Transportation to the Caspian Sea A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy To the Department of Political and Social Sciences Environmental Policy Research center (FFU) of Freie Universität Berlin By: Mona Poorzady Supervisors: PD Dr. Lutz Mez Dr. Afshin Danehkar Berlin 2018 Date of defense: 28.11.2014 Acknowledgements First, I wish to thank and express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Lutz Mez, for supervising me and inviting me to the department, providing me working place, the necessary research facilities and other ad- ministrative supports. Without his inspiring advice, constant encouragement, end- less patience and worthwhile criticisms the completion of this work would have been impossible. My sincere and cordial thanks are to Dr Afshin Danehkar for accepting to be as my co-supervisor and for his technical assistance and various valuable comments that I got from him during the whole parts of this dissertation, the field work, preparing the database as well as for critically reviewing this manuscript. My special sincere thanks are also to Forest, Range Watershed Organization of Iran, as well as Strategic Research Center of Iran for their cooperation. In this re- gard I would like to thank especially Mr. Majani, Head of Remote sensing department of FRWO for his support especially to provide data. Also, special thanks to Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) for accepting to analysis sediment samples. I fully acknowledge and express my gratitude to the Erasmus Mundus (EM8) Pro- gram for granting me a scholarship for 34 months, especially Ms. Stephanie Böhler for her support during the scholarship period. My Family, colleagues, Iranian students and friends in Berlin and other cities of Germany I am grateful to all of them. Preface Deforestation in Iran has been more rapid in the past 50 years than at any time in Iran’s history. Forests play a vital role in sustaining water resources and aquatic ecosystems. Forest disturbance, both natural (e.g. wildfire, insects, disease, wind- storms, drought) and human (e.g. timber harvesting, land conversion) caused, can have a profound effect on hydrologic, geomorphic and ecologic processes. With climate change, natural disturbances are becoming more frequent and catastrophic. This, together with growing human disturbance, will undoubtedly affect water resources and consequently have significant implications for land managers and policy makers. Intensive cultivation and mismanagement have caused environmental problems and soil degradation. Soils which developed under natural forests in north Iran have been degraded by land-use changes. Forests protect water quality by slowing runoff, stabilizing soils and filtering pollutants. Conversion of forest land to other uses interrupts these natural processes and increases the potential for water quality impairment. Since soil erosion and sediment redistribution have implications for both soil and water resources, and scientists have established that the movements of soil, sediment and water are intrinsically linked, it is critical to im- plement integrated resource protection strategies. Erosion, transport and sedimentation processes gain increasingly importance in socio–economic and ecological respect. In this research land use, land cover maps were prepared, using satellite imagery and aerial photos during the last 50 years. The rate of land use changes was compared with rate of sedimentation. Parallel with this work forest policy in Iran during different development plans using policy cycle method was analyzed and actors were recognized. Then the policies in development plans before and af- ter Islamic revolution compared with prepared maps, results showed that govern- ment development plans didn’t apply according to the program and forest degradation and consequently sedimentation was increased in study area during the time. Table of contents Table of contents ...................................................................................................................................... I List of Figures ......................................................................................................................................... V List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... VII 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Deforestation and forest degradation ................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Sedimentation process ....................................................................................................................... 4 1.2.1 Why should we be concerned about erosion and sedimentation? ............................................. 5 1.2.2 The forest policy ........................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Research questions ............................................................................................................................. 7 1.3.1 Hypothesis .................................................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Theory ................................................................................................................................................. 7 1.4.1 Theories in forest policy studies .................................................................................................. 8 1.5 Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 15 1.5.1 The policy cycle model ............................................................................................................... 15 2. History of Hyrcanian Forest in north of Iran ....................................................................................... 19 2.1 Comparison with other similar properties ........................................................................................ 20 2.1.1 Ownership Figures ..................................................................................................................... 24 2.1.2 Livelihood ................................................................................................................................... 24 2.1.3 Traditional animal husbandry using understory vegetation and pollards for livestock grazing (mainly of cows and sheep) ................................................................................................................ 25 2.1.4 Fuel wood extraction ................................................................................................................. 25 2.1.5 Conversion of forest lands ......................................................................................................... 25 2.1.6 Illegal logging ............................................................................................................................. 26 2.2 Deforestation and Forest Degradation ............................................................................................. 27 2.2.1 Deforestation ............................................................................................................................. 27 2.2.2 Loss of plant nutrients ............................................................................................................... 30 2.2.3 Dam sedimentation .................................................................................................................... 30 2.2.4 Costs of Deforestation: .............................................................................................................. 32 2.2.5 Costs of Forest Degradation ....................................................................................................... 34 2.3 Water erosion and dam sedimentation ............................................................................................ 34 I 2.3.1 History of forest utilization in north of Iran ............................................................................... 36 2.4 Southern coast of the Caspian Sea and Hyrcanian forest as an integrated ecosystem with different actors ...................................................................................................................................................... 39 2.4.1 Forestry policy, institutions and major programs ...................................................................... 42 2.4.2 Institutions ................................................................................................................................. 42 2.4.3 Policies ....................................................................................................................................... 44 2.4.4 Changes and trends.................................................................................................................... 45 2.5 Chronology of the national forestry plan process ............................................................................ 46 2.5.1 Policy instruments

Load more

Table of Contents