Project background:
In the eastern south of Iran and in the region called ?Nikshahr? which is a section of Sistan & Baluchistan province, there are people who in spite of their severe poverty, are continuing their social life through agriculture and stockbreeding with the least facilities available. This situation has promoted them towards intellectual utilities of the natural advantages in a dry land with shortage of water resources.

One of the most important of which is using leaves of wild date tree (DAZ) for making hovel and also producing other home made products they need such as: footwear, different kinds of baskets as handicrafts.

On the other hand, consistent survey and professional studies of environmental guards regarding the habitat of the species which is in danger in this area, Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus) has revealed that this region (Sistan &Baluchistan) is one of the few habitats of this specie. Habitat destruction and climate changes

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have caused very significant conflicts between this species and local people because of their common living resources.

The results of studies in recent years by Mohitban Society and others have led to identify basic problems, the most important of which are:
? Increased confronting of Asiatic Black Bear with local people and therefore intensifying the conflict on one hand and lack of financial resources at the right time for compensation on the other hand has caused a negative view towards the Black Bear. One of the most important consequences of this is killing this species.
? Lack of organization to present and promote the handicrafts in the region
? Producing the handicrafts only by old people and unwillingness of the youth for participating in handicrafts production.
? Lack of knowledge of producers to black bear's biological values and confronting bears
Regarding all recognized threats and opportunities in the area, this project of attracting the participation of local communities towards producing the handicrafts with the aim of conserving the black bear in the bounded area of Nikshahr county.

Since there is no established organization for presenting the products in the province or marketing outside the province (considering the natural and good quality of the products), this industry has been obsolete and begun to decline. That?s because only old people are dealing with these handicrafts and youth are not interested to participate. Therefore, in future the whole process will be forgotten.

This project will not only organize the procedure of presenting and selling the handicrafts, but will also inform the local communities about this critically endangered species, the black bear. Moreover, establishing an organization of local women to manage the selling process and identifying DAZ harvesting areas as well as Asiatic Black Bear habitat to reduce the conflicts. On the other hand, consistent marketing outside the province will encourage young people to participate in the production process and will compensate bear attacks through the profit gained.

Presenting the products with the species logo will increase public-awareness as well as their willingness for buying the products in order to conserve the specie.

May be in the future, local communities may volunteer to participate in compensation of damages or implementing the training courses. The noticeable point is that through this project implementation and establishment of the financial fund to compensate bear damages, local people will be more interested to identify new epicenter of conflicts in future.

Project activities:

Part 1-
Establishing a financial fund (using part of the profits gained from selling the products) to compensate damages caused by Black Bear. A board of trustees would manage the fund
? Identifying the epicenter of human-bear conflicts for sharing same habitats and DAZ as food for bears and raw material for local people to make handicrafts
? Informing the local people about present/absent points of bear to prevent them from going there for collecting DAZ leaves in order to reduce the conflicts
Part 2-
? Establishing a local CSO involving local women for producing the handicrafts and training them for marketing and presenting their products to customers (for project sustainability)
? Organizing the product design orders of the handicrafts made from DAZ in the area
? Marketing the product sales outside the province
? Raising awareness of local people about conservation values of Black Bear and encouraging them to present their product with black bear logo
? Introducing the species to people outside the region( while selling the products)

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