The Central Zagros Mountains region of contains globally significant ecosystem, species and genetic diversities. The area is home to a vast range of species including over 2,000 species of higher plants and several endangered and endemic mammal species. The zone constitutes one of the most important centres of endemism not only in the country but also in the region.
In this zone, biodiversity has been and continues to be a lynchpin of both economic and social development. Some estimates suggest that harvesting of wild plant and animal species accounts for up to 50% of the cash income of poor households. Due to its ecological, economic, social and cultural significance, the Government of Islamic Republic of Iran has been giving a high priority to the sustainable development of the region. The Government aims to develop the Central Zagros Landscape Conservation Zone as an area integrating biodiversity conservation with sustainable development. The ‘Central Zagros Landscape Conservation Zone Project’ which covers over 2.5 million hectares of the central Zagros Mountains region is active in four provinces of the country since 2006. The Project will contribute to the overall goal of the Government of Iran, which is to ensure that the socio-economy in the Zagros Mountains develops and is mutually supportive of biodiversity conservation and restoration. The project can be considered as one of the most challenging, innovative and ambitious conservation projects the government of Islamic Republic of Iran has been currently undertaking with the financial and technical support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) www.thegef.org and UNDP www.undp.org.ir as well as financial contributions by the Government. The project is being implemented by the Department of the Environment of the Islamic Republic of Iran www.irandoe.org and www.cbcz.ir (the Project website).. The project works at all levels of governance and engages with a wide range of actors and stakeholders. The project support will complement specifically in developing the required national level capacity to support biodiversity conservation in the central Zagros mountains; in removing the barriers to mainstreaming the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into the development processes and the economic sectoral processes throughout the Conservation Zone; and in developing capacity for participatory, village-driven development that assures sustainable use, biodiversity conservation, natural resource exploitation and socio-economic development in a win-win manner at the village level. The necessary capacity, at individual, institutional and systemic level, in national agencies will be developed to institutionalize and replicate the innovative approaches to biodiversity conservation being developed in the Zone. It is important to understand both economic barriers and drivers of biodiversity conservation to effectively mainstream biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilization into the natural resources and tourism sectors. At present, there is not only lack of incentives to conservation, many national policies promote unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and land use practices. For example, water is undervalued, meaning that the water-catchment function is undervalued. In general, all ecosystem goods and services get low value and are not properly appreciated by the national economic and development policies. The sustainable conservation financing which is considered to be lynchpin to long term conservation hardly exists. The cost of environmental degradation is not calculated and incorporated into the national accounting systems despite the development plans having required this to be practices. There is a need to create awareness for the economic cost of environmentally unsustainable policies and practices, improve understanding of the benefits and costs of interventions and catalyze the design of market-based incentives to adopt environmentally sustainable behavior. More importantly, there is a need to ‘internalize’ environmental values in development decision-making and national accounting systems. The study on the valuation of biodiversity in the Zagros region is thus designed to introduce economic instruments for mainstreaming environmental concerns into development policy of the government. Specifically the study - estimates the monetary value of biodiversity in the Zagros Mountains;
- helps Iimprove national policies which favour sustainable harvesting of biological resources;
- suggests incentive mechanisms to make conservation an economically attractive and desirable course of action for sectoral agencies, the private sector, communities, households and individuals; and
- charts out sustainable conservation financing mechanisms to support conservation activities in the Zagros region.
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