News Letter; MENARID Int’l Project National News The 4th Project Board Meeting of the MENARID International Project was Held in Sep. 2013 Members of the Project Board of the MENARID Project in Deputy to the Minister of Agricultural Jihad and Head of its fourth meeting discussed on the quality of MENARID Forests, Rangelands and Watershed Organization (FRWO) project processes and activities, assessed the outputs and and MENARID National Project Director (NPD), FRWO required modifications to continue project measures. Watershed Deputy and Actin NPD of the Project, UNDP The session benefited the presence of KhodaKaramJalali, Deputy Resident Representative in Iran and Head of Autumn 2013 - No. 4 64 News Letter; MENARID Int’l Project Inclusive Growth and Development Unit in UNDP- Iran, 1- Transferring the project activities to provinces level as a Representatives from Minister of Foreign Affairs and key policy, Ministry of Agricultural Jihad, Deputy of Planning of 2- Making practical the annual work plan, Sistan and Baluchistan Governor Office, General Director 3- Monitoring and evaluation of the project implementations of Planning of Yazd Governor Office, General Managers through holding regular participatory monitoring and of Natural Resources and Watershed Organizations in evaluation sessions. Kermanshah and Sistan and Baluchistan, MENARID Jazi provided a positive evaluation of the decrees adopted Provincial Project Manager in Yazd and also representatives by the Project Board since its launch and said that in three of local communities on November 30, 2013. last sessions, 21 decrees were discussed and 16 were The session commenced with ParvizGarshasbi, FRWO completely undertaken, 3 other have been adopted, yet, not realized and actions have not been taken regarding 2 other decrees. Then, the Provincial Planning Deputies and General Managers of Natural Resources and Watershed Bureaus in Kermanshah and Sistan and Baluchistan and Yazd provinces, presented their views and comments for further progress and full achievement of MENARID project objectives. Later, Murali, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Iran, expressed his gratitude of those involved in this project and described the ultimate objective of the project from two perspectives, described below: Watershed Deputy, defining the objectives and agenda of the First, establishment of an efficient and effective model session and continued with HoushangJazi, National Project at executive level to foster consistency and coordination Manager of the L/W and MENARID Projects, providing in comprehensive management of the watersheds and a comprehensive report on the measures undertaken in then generalization of this model to other sites in the the project during the current year to realize intended country. Murali, described the initiative of this project in achievements of the project. collaboration with development agents at local to national In this report, general policies and executive strategies of level to be a unique experience within international projects MENARID project were provided, for the past year, based implemented in Iran and considered this achievement as a on three key principals as stated below: successful experience to be generalized in other projects. Autumn 2013 - No. 4 63 News Letter; MENARID Int’l Project L/W and MENARID Projectsand “Barij Essence” Company Signed a Cooperation Agreement Regarding to requests of local communities from Hablehroud objectives with MENARID project. So they signed an and MENARID projects’ pilot sites for herb cultivation, the agreement for cooperation and joined implementations. region potential to grow and cultivate herbs and valuable This measure is expression of MENARID project to utilize experiences in this field in Forests, Rangelands and all available capacities which covers the whole chain from Watershed Organization; experts of the above mentioned production to consumption and gathers the government, projects considered to train and develop proper types of public and private sector. herbs in their agenda. Also, in order to define a sustainable Along this cooperation, representatives of Barij Essence process and establish suitable markets for consumption of Company, with a team of experts from two projects of herbs, they negotiated with successful company of “Barij MENARID and L/W visited Bahabad site in Yazd province Essence” for further cooperation. and Hablehroud in Tehran province. During various sessions, Barij Essence, as the founder of essence extraction in the list of proper herbs for each region was provided as well the country, is one of the most viable pharmaceutical as enhanced “damask rose”cultivation, setup the factories companies in the country.The company focuseson medicine and efficiency of their work were outputs of these visits. manufacture and herbal products which are common Autumn 2013 - No. 4 62 News Letter; MENARID Int’l Project International Projects in the Field of Environment and Natural Resources, Assessed Collaboration Opportunities Managers of the environmental international projects participated in a “Joint Meeting of International Projects in the Field of Management of Natural Resources and the Environment”, dated September 2013. Resident Representative of UNDP, Bala Subramanim Murali and Deputy of Watershed Department of Forests, Ranges and Watershed Organization (FRWO), Parviz Garshasbi, attended in the meeting which was hosted by the MENARID project. In this meeting, managers of projects “Sustainable Land and Water Management in Habeleh Roud Basin- L/W-, “Carbon Sequestration”, “Conservation of Biodiversity in Central Zagros”, “Conservation od Iranian Wetlands”, “Conservation of Asiatic Cheetah”, “Conservation of Hyrcanian Forests” and “GEF-UNDP Small Grants Projects”, discussed regulatory and structural challenges and constraints in integrated management of the environment and natural resources and reviewed opportunities for enhanced cooperation and coordination, acquiring knowledge and capacity building at all levels and exchange of the lessons learned and best practices. Autumn 2013 - No. 4 61 News Letter; MENARID Int’l Project Houshang Jazi, National Manager of L/W and MENARID Projects, stated the importance of establishing a reasonable and meaningful relation between the projects and indicated that provision of a defined agenda considering the interest of all projects shall be effective at all national levels and mutual interests and public intellect shall benefit such opportunity. Garshasbi, in this meeting, stated that the objective of establishing structural consistency among active projects in the field of environment and natural resources management is to achieve a comprehensive model for integrated management of all biological resources, which requires cross-sectoral and bilinear planning. Deputy to Watershed Department of FRWO stated that required condition for many measures for organizational consistency exists in the country. For instance, village and city councils, from legal and executive point of view, have sufficient capacity at local level where MENARID project is experimenting adoption of such capacities in the activities of the project. Resident Representative of UNDP in Iran, referring to the fact that upon execution of Hyrcanian Forests Project, FRWO has become one of the key partners of UNDP projects in Iran, appreciated the hospitality of this organization. He stated that environmental projects have critical value for UNDP since natural resources play a vital role in supporting the life and livelihood of the people. Murali added that Iran, has valuable historical background, competence and efficient structures for natural resource management where joint projects of the Government of Iran and UNDP, with focus on local community involvement in natural resource management, provides the opportunity to put this knowledge and competence in use. In this meeting, managers of the projects reviewed the draft of a Memorandum of Understanding for collaboration among them. Also, it was decided to hold expert and managerial sessions regarding joint practical grounds in these projects to identify gaps and legal constraints for comprehensive management of natural resources and the environment, participation and synergy of knowledge and demonstration of the best practices for sustainable water and land management. Autumn 2013 - No. 4 60 News Letter; MENARID Int’l Project Closer collaborations with ICARDA MENARID Project On Monday, 18th of November 2013, Dr Aden Aw- March 2014. He also mentioned that they are now Hassan, Chair of the Social, Economic and Policy fully focused on identifying the most relevant M&E Research Program (SEPRP), visited Menarid Project indicators for all Menarid projects, with support from Office in Iran and met with National Project Manager, IFAD. He welcomed Menarid Iran’s contributions in MrJazi and National Project Director, MrGarshasbi. this regard. In response, MrJazi welcomed Dr Aw- These meetings were a follow up to the two previous Hassan and wished he would come back and visit field visits that were conducted by the ICARDA some of the Menarid project sites in Iran in the near Menarid Project Coordinator, Hugo Remaury, who future and get more familiar with the Iranian context. visited Semnan, Yazd and Kermanshah Menarid sites MrJazi also gave a brief overview of the project , its in coordination with Iran Menarid project. goal and objectives. He welcomed ICARDA’s proposal In his meeting, Dr Aw-Hassan emphasized that in identifying the best