Paband National Park in Mazandaran Province has been equipped with a new ranger station to step up the security of the protected area’s fragile ecosystem. “The well-equipped facility allows rangers to better monitor the national park and reduce poaching,” IRNA quoted Seyyed Khaleq Sajjadi, governor of Behshahr, as saying. Establishing and equipping the station cost an estimated 1.5 billion rials ($43,000 at market exchange rate). Covering 24,500 hectares, Paband was designated a national park in 2003. The park hosts animal species such as the Persian leopard, brown bear, red deer, roe deer, wild boar, wild cat, fox, jackal and porcupine. One of the main threats to the national park is the occasional wildfire that tends to get out of control since the mountainous terrain of the region is inaccessible to fire brigades and the region lacks aircraft to douse the infernos.
