Minutes from the 8th Meeting of MENARID Project Steering Committee Fall 2016, Behabad, Yazd Prepared by Parnian Tadbir VA Tosee Co. 1 Agenda items: 1. Project Progress Report for the First Half of 2016 2. Challenges facing project implementation and recommendations 3. Discussion and Viewpoints by Members on the Steering Committee 4. Summation and adoption of decisions Meeting Time & Place: 09:00 to 12:00; Nov. 9th, 2016 Meeting Hall, Behabad Local Government Office, Yazd Attendees: - Mr. Khodakaram Jalali (Deputy Minister & Head of FRWO) - Ms. Anne Marie Sloth Carlsen (Deputy UN Resident Representative in Iran) - Mr. Parviz Garshasbi (Deputy Director for Watershed Management, FRWO, and Acting NPD of MENARID and Hableroud Projects) - Mr. Eghbal (Behabad Township Governor) - Mr. Eliasi (Director, Kermanshah Province plan and budget Organization) - Mr. Sajjadipour (Director, Yazd Province Agriculture Jahad Organization) - Mr. Aghighi (Director General, Watershed Management and Soil Conservation Bureau, FRWO) - Mr. Akhoundi (Director General, Yazd Province Natural Resources and Watershed Management General Directorate) - Mr. Sheikh-Veisi (Director General, Kermanshah Province Natural Resources and Watershed Management General Directorate) - Mr. Vahid (Director General, North Lhorasan Province Natural Resources and Watershed Management General Directorate) - Mr. Riyahi (Advisor to Chaharmahal & Bakhtiyari Province PMO) - Mr. Fallah-Kohan (Deputy Director, Public Relations and International Affairs, FRWO) - Mr. Jazi (National Project Manager of MENARID and Hablehroud Projects) - Mr. Anoushfar (Head, Division of Planning and Budgeting for Natural Resources and Watershed Management Projects, Ministry of Agriculture Jahad) - Mr. Abbaspour (International Affairs Officer, Ministry of Agriculture Jahad) - Mr. Samadi-Yar (Senior Officer, Water & Sewage Macroplanning Bureau, Ministry of Energy) - Mr. Mohammadi-Moghaddam (Director General, Chaharmahal & Bakhtiyari Province Natural Resources and Watershed Management General Directorate) - Mr. Baharvand (Representative of Interior Ministry) - Mr. Aazami-Rad (Deputy for Watershed Management, Khorasan Razavi Province FRWO) - Mr. Hejazi (Representative of Yazd Province Management & Planning Organization) 2 - Mr. Namjooyan (Member on the High Council on Forest Management, FRWO) - Mr. Tavakoli (Director of Kamkuyeh Rural Development MicroFund) - Mr. Kamyar (Head, Division of Watershed Management, State Dams Bureau) - Mr. Eliasi Boroujeni, Mr. Bagheri (Deputy for Watershed Management and Local Manager of MENARID Projects, Yazd Province FRWO) - Mr. Olfat-Miri (MENARID Local Project Manager, Kermanshah Province FRWO) - Mr. Sorourinejhad (Local Manager of MENARID Projects, Sistan & Baluchestan Province FRWO) - Mr. Bahrami (Deputy for Watershed Management, Chahrmahal & Bakhtiyari Province General Directorate for Natural Resources and Watershed Management) - Mr. Faramarz (Deputy for Watershed Management and Local Coordinator of MENARID Projects, North Khorasan Province FRWO) - Mr. Bameri (Deputy for Watershed Management, Sistan & Baluchestan Province General Directorate for Natural Resources and Watershed Management) - Mr. Mahmoudnejhad (Local Project Manager of MERID Projects in Chaharmahal & Bakhtiyari Province) - Mr. Heydari (Local Project Manager of MERID Projects in Razavi Khorasan Province) - Mr. Hooshmand Behabadi (Deputy Governor of Behabad Township) - Mr. Nazari Behabadi (Officer, Behebad Governor’s Office) - Khoshabadi (Behabad District Manager) - Mr. Teymouri (Asfij District Manager) - Mr. Fazeli (Representative of Local Police) - Mr. Rahmatiyan (Manager, Behabad Agriculture Organization) - Mr. Shatranji (Protocol Manager, Yazd Province Agriculture Jahad Organization) - Ms Bakhshaliyan (UNDP) - Ms Rezaei (MENARID Project Officer) - Ms. Jamshidi (Hablehroud Project Officer) Opening and discussion: Mr. Eghbal (Behabad Township Governor) opened the 8th meeting of the Steering Committee on MENARID International Projects in Behabad, Yazd Province, by welcoming the attendees. He maintained that the project has recorded a feat of success in raising awareness across the pilot villages and even at the town level, a record that has encouraged requests for the replication of the project in other towns and provinces. Mr. Jalali (Deputy Minister & Head of FRWO) maintained that MENARID International Project endeavors to achieve institutional strengthening and coherence. He hoped that its implementation and replication will serve our people and our natural resources. [The Lack of] an integrated approach to watershed management, he asserted, is one of the major and strategic challenges facing our land management practices such that problems and complications arise whenever we distance ourselves from this important strategy [of integrated management]. He extended his gratitude to UNDP and 3 GEF for their contributions. He also appreciated Mr. Garshasbi and Mr. Jazi for their devotion to the project and extended his special thanks to all the mangers, organizations, and agencies such as the Ministry of Agriculture Jahad, Interior Ministry, Ministry of Energy, and all the individuals involved in the project. The Deputy then reminded the Committee of the fact that watershed management at the town level is the responsibility of and is indeed left to the hands of town governments, and that they are expected to exploit their resources toward the implementation of the projects under MENARID. He also reiterated the significance of a forward-looking approach and time management as the major components of the integrated approach that have been duly incorporated and considered in defining MENARID projects. He maintained that MENARID and carbon sequestration projects are human-centered and designed to meet human needs while they also strive to strike a balance among all the life elements. These projects need not only stake-holders’ active participation but their farsightedness as well to provide favorable conditions for human life. What we need in our modern world and what has been gaining an ever increasing importance over the centuries of human life is sagacity, the wisdom of crowds, and co-intelligence which help our integrated approach and prevent incongruity and deviation from our goals. We have time and time again seen the merits and benefits of the wisdom of crowds where it was relied on in our watersheds. In its land and natural resources management efforts and in watershed management with community participation, he declared, FRWO has always laid emphasis on a comprehensive and integrated approach as its strategic policy. A decision was made last year which mandated all the provinces to have their own pilot villages where all the measures and activities taken by different agencies are in unison directed toward land use planning and management. The Head of FRWO then asserted that prioritizing such activities will be of prime importance that must be accomplished in harmony with land management goals. He then hoped that this unified and integrated approach to activities leads to serving human needs, one of the most important of which is ecological security. He referred to the dust and sand storms blowing into Iran from a western neighboring country that has affected all our activities such that most farms, villages, and roads are endangered in regions that suffer from the shifting sands and the devastating dust storms. He maintained that this life-endangering issue has now been given first priority by the public at large. Mr. Jalali then identified public participation as the need in our present day situation and as the foundation for the proper management of our watersheds. The Deputy announced that the ownership of 5 million ha of land had been awarded to local people last year. He then observed that land protection had improved in such areas under private ownership and that damages to natural resources had declined as evidenced by the minimized fire incidents reported. Institutional coherence and public participation he observed to be the spirit of the management of water resources, and the integrated approach and foresightedness to be the prerequisites to any effective and efficient management system. He reiterated the 4 creed and call by the Supreme Leader for a Resistance Economy that both the government and the nation must follow in their endeavors. He stated that the government observes this creed in all aspects of its activities. He expressed his hope that the model emerging from MENARID projects will develop into a practicable model that is capable of accomplishing great jobs at minimum costs. He also observed that MENARID International and carbon sequestration projects are integrated into our national culture and will be considered as successful projects in our executive plans for this year of Resistance Economy. He declared Iran as one of the nations quite successful with implementing MENARID International Project as an effective and efficient model. The model is so important to our economy, he believed, that the Iranian Government will continue the implementation of the projects even if UNDP suspends or withdraws their support for the project. He requested national planning bodies to consider the models developed and to provide support for these projects as they open up new avenues to sustainable development. Mr. Jazi (NPD for MENARID and Hablehroud projects) delivered his progress report on the decisions made in previous meetings of the Steering Committee; a summary report was presented as in