Iran’s Tang-e Sayyad National Park has been inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Biosphere Reserves, making it the country’s 11th UNESCO-listed biosphere reserve.
The national park, officially registered as Tang-e Sayyad Sabzkouh Biosphere Reserve, was approved for registration during the 27th Session of UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Reserve Programme (MAB) held June 8-12 in the organization’s Paris office. Nineteen other biospheres were also registered during the session, Mehr News Agency reported.
Tang-e-Sayyad is located in the southwestern province of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and covers 532,878 hectares. Rivers, geological developments, and melting of ice have created a number of wetlands and habitats replete with rare fauna and flora.
“On the sidelines of the session, we discussed the possibility of registering Hamoun Wildlife Sanctuary as well as a number of wetlands,” said Ahmadali Keykhah, a deputy at Department of Environment, who attended the session in Paris.
Arjan and Parishan, Genou, Hara, Kavir, Touran, Miankaleh, Golestan, Arasbaran, Urmia and Denadeh are Iranian biosphere reserves already inscribed on the list.
Currently, 651 biosphere reserves, including 15 borderline biosphere reserves in 120 countries, have been registered at UNESCO. Launched in 1971, MAB is an intergovernmental scientific program that aims to establish a scientific basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environments. It has 34 member states that convene annually to discuss and approve the registration of new biosphere reserves.
Biosphere reserves seek to reconcile conservation of biological and cultural diversity, and economic and social development.
