Summary Report MENARID project stakeholders’ visit to the GEF/SGP Project of Producing Compost from Organic Waste at Local Houses in Kafshgiri village in Golestan Province 21 May 2015 “Transferring selected good practices of GEF/SGP local projects to the provincial stakeholders of GEF MENARID project” GEF/SGP Project IRA/ MENARID/13/01 Following the project of “Transferring selected good practices of GEF/SGP local projects to the provincial stakeholders of GEF MENARID project” (IRA/MENARID/13/01), two of the implementing NGOs (Boompajuhan Society and House of Culture and Sustainable Development) consulted with the GEF/SGP and MENARID project office in Tehran selected the site of waste management in villages of Kafshgiri and Osbukala in Golestan province - as one of the sites to be visited by Hableh Rood Project Stakeholders from Tehran and Semnan provinces. This visit was carried out on 21 May 2015. The activities in Kafshgiri village are being done within the framework of the project entitled “Producing compost from organic waste at local houses” (IRA/SGP/OP5/Y2/STAR CC 12 06(172)) supported by GEF/SGP and carried out by the Hormod Sustainable Development Institute. The main and important indicators for selecting this project as a site visit were: 1) a decrease in the waste volume through local waste management; 2) producing compost as well as healthy food for rural families; 3) a decrease in methane emissions due to a decrease in the volume of the waste to be taken to the landfill. “Waste” is a major problem in the North part of Iran and especially in Caspian Hyrcanian forests, and there have been no sustainable solution for waste management in the forest. Considering the fact that villages are located in various places in the forests, and the waste management has always been ignored, creating a sample and functional site for producing compost using organic wastes in Caspian forests could be a sustainable solution. The visitors can observe how the waste is managed in houses, how they are separated and how its volume has decreased. Meanwhile, it has improved people’s livelihood by producing compost and using it in their farming fields, or selling the dry waste. The costs of carrying the waste have decreased and the environment has been protected since the waste has been managed in the villages. The participants in the visit were the National Manager of MENARID and Habehroud projects, experts of Hablehroud project from Semnan province; experts from FRWO – Golestan, experts from Youth and Sports Department of Gorgan, National coordinator of the GEF Small Grants Programme, representatives of various NGOs from various provinces of Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Gilan, Mazandaran, Golestan, Kohkiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, and Semnan; and local communities of two villages of Kafshgiri and Osbukala. 1 Dr. Razmi opened the ceremony and announced the programme and while congratulating for the Global Day of Biodiversity, he thanked the good people of Kafshgiri village, especially the women of the village and the Farid Youth House for receiving the visitors. Then, Mr. Mohajer told the story of the formation of the Farid Youth House (the local CBO involved in this project) and the fact that the organization was named after Farid who was an outstanding student in mathematics who died in 1997 in a car accident. After that, Dr. Jazi thanked people for receiving Hablehroud stakeholders and informed the participants that the projects of Hablehroud and MENARID are among the UNDP country projects that are implemented in five provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, Yazd, Tehran and Semnan. He mentioned that the visit could fruitful since it can help us to see how you have carried out this project, and therefore, we can use your lessons learned. He said that the country is suffering a complex and adverse environmental condition. The climate change has affected the country and without people’s participation, nothing can be done. Dr. Razmi in his words explained about the reasons why the villages of Osbukala and Kafshgiri have been selected. He said that we started our work from Osbukala in proximity of conserved area of Semes- Kandeh (announced as conserved area and Wild Life Reserve since 1975) in Mazandaran province. In that time, the area, the region was full of waste; in 1999, the existing one Hectare increased to 10 Hectares of landfill; the waste of Sari city has been stocked here for twenty years with a depth of 20 meters. For local people it was not much important that their waste is left here or even they decide to decrease their waste. We tried to involve the local community in conservation of the Wild Life Reserve and later two local organizations formed and these two started their local conservation. He then explained about Kafshgiri village which is located close to the conserved area of Jahannama. Also, there was a local organization in this village called Farid Youth House, that was very active and they have published a local newsletter for about ten years. Therefore we decided to start our work in this village, and now after one year, we have been successful to decrease the volume of waste in this village through SGP support. Only those waste items goes to the landfill that we cannot do anything about them. This project has been helpful for village management, and Dehyar’s office. The objectives of the projects have been: 1) contribution to a healthy environment; 2) reduction in waste disposal costs with an aim to use the saved money on cultural activities for youth vitality and health of women; conversion of waste into compost in gardens of rural women to produce vegetables and fruits. After that a video was screened about the women’s empowerment in the village. Later, Ms. Esfehani, a woman from the village, gave a report of the process of compost production from organic wastes. Also, she explained how it is used in their fields and how they have been successful to produce healthy fruits and vegetables. She said that even the taste of the cucumber produced with compost is better than the one with chemicals. She explained about the objectives of the projects too, and thanked Farid Youth House for giving the women such opportunity to participate in the projects. After this speech, there was a question and answer session. The next speaker was Mr. Mousavian who gave a report about the two projects of their local group from Souteh (Mazandaran) entitled “Farmers’ Empowerment to Sustainable Agro-Ecosystem Management in Mazandaran Province” and “Farmers’ empowerment in marketing "safe" crops produced through integrated pest management technique” supported by GEF/SGP. Their first project started in 2002. He said that first, together with the other farmers, we prepared a list of about sixty problems, and then we found out we had to move forward and resolve most of them by ourselves rather than the government. Perhaps the government has to solve bigger problems. 2 For instance, Azolla that was a great problem for us has changed into an opportunity; we produced compost out of it and due to the humidity in it, it was very good for compost producing. We could use it alone or we can use it with livestock waste – the latter was more efficient. At the present time, it is done by everybody in Souteh. In our rice crops, we used ducks to eliminate poisons and chemicals. They were good for controlling bests, providing air and even adding manures to the soil. Before that we were against ducks in our crops, but now we do it and it has become a source of income for farmers. Mr. Rameshini, Kafshgiri village Imam was the next speaker who talked about the fact that human beings are able to change the obstacles into opportunities. He also referred to this point that the environment is being destroyed in the name of development. We have to increase our vision and do our best for even these small problems. Creating even a green environment in our houses has certain positive mental effect on us. Dr. Safa talked about the experience in Siasoufian village in Gilan province and explained the project of “Upscaling to Reduce Waste in Caspian Forest (through composting)”. He said consumerism is ever- increasing and every year, tons of plastic wastes are produced. Even disposals are entering free waters. He emphasized that the BOD of human disposal is between 220 to 250 ppm, but BOD of waste leachate is about 30,000 ppm. Dr. Safa explained about vermicompost and said that we need to use the suitable species of worm (Eisenia fetida) which does not create bad smell or attracts no mosquitos. He said that there are about 3600 species of soil worms and we have to consider that most of them spend more time to produce compost. The last speaker was Ms. Daraie who gave a report from the project of producing biodiesel out of the waste cooking oil that can be used in restaurants and tourist residential complexes. She said that there is not any solution for elimination of oil wastes. This machine has been produced by the Tehran University researchers, and has the potentials to produce biodiesel out of the waste cooking oil. A sample machine of 55 litres – with Chinese ingredients – will cost IRR 150 million and with European ingredients, it will cost IRR 180 million. To produce the house machine, there is a need for IRR 20 million. The implementing NGO is ready to produce these machines without gaining any interest, and accepts orders. After lunch, the participants visited two house compost sites, and the involved women explained about the different steps of the production.