Iran's diminishing forests have become a major talking point in environmental circles, and the trend has wiped off 14,000 hectares of forest area in the last 10 years alone.
Head of Iran's Forests, Range, and Watershed Management Organization (FRW) Khodakaram Jalali has expressed renewed concern over the shrinking forests.
"In the past decade, deforestation destroyed 250 million hectares of forest area worldwide, while reforestation efforts only managed to restore 80 million hectares," ISNA reported him as saying at the weekend.
Iran's 14,000-hectare forest loss means "the country lost one hectare of forest per 1000 hectares."
According to Jalali, urbanization, tree felling for timber, wildfires, mining, and other construction projects are mainly responsible for the globally disappearing forests.
He took stock of the value of Iranian wood and timber, stating, "Depending on the type of wood, a single tree is worth 100 to 400 million rials ($3000 - $12000) in the market."
Illegal logging adds to the price of the wood, he was quoted by the news agency as saying.
Jalai, however, commended Iran's recent efforts in protecting its forests. "In 2014 Iran was ranked 16th in the world in forest protection with an average score of 84.12 out of 100.
Between 2012 and 2014, Iran lost 0.1% of its forest area as opposed to the global average of 3.8%, Jalali was quoted as saying.
At the 2nd National Conference on Environmental Hazards held last week in Khorramabad, Loristan Province, activists and officials called on lawmakers to review policies that directly impact the well-being of forests and encouraged cooperation between the people, NGOs and the relevant government organizations.
