The development deputy at the Department of Environment (DoE) said there is a shortage of park rangers in the country. Dr. Mohammad Mojabi told ISNA “the global average is one ranger for every 4,000 hectares; but in some parts of the country there is one ranger for every 40,000 hectares.” He added that given the wide range of the DoE duties, the department “is not able to undertake all of them with the existing resources.” Mojabi said all the important ecological zones in the country including national parks, national wildlife and protected areas fall within the DoE ambit and total nearly 22million hectares. Currently, there are 2,700 active rangers in the country.
