Overall objective / activities to be implemented under the grant:
Forests and pastures are among the most important divine blessings, as it plays an important role in maintaining the ecological balance of the region. A factor that can affect the ecosystem of forests and pastures is fire. In recent years, fires, especially the Bahar Mountain fire that occurred in August 2020, have caused irreparable damage to forest and pastures in the region. The fire destroyed more than 50 hectares of the best pastures and forests, the highly valuable Juniper species and a precious part of the Hyrcanian forests in Cheshmeh Zav on the northwest side of Golestan National Park in the summer of 2021 altogether. Since the livelihood of the villagers depends on natural resources, the destruction of the forest due to the fire causes irreparable damage to the environment and the economy of the villagers.
To address this, the project aims to establish rapid response local teams to extinguish fires in rural natural areas and to establish and equip 2 local firefighting bases for preparation and rapid action against natural fires in North Khorasan and Golestan National Park, with a focus on past experiences and lessons learned from past fires in the natural areas.
The overall goal of the project is to identify critical and high-risk areas in North Khorasan, to involve, train and empower local communities living on the outskirts of Golestan National Park, Salook National Park, and Gharkhoad Protected Area and Bahar Mountain in fire preparedness in natural areas. By forming rapid response local teams and equipping their members with firefighting tools, fire control in forest and pastures in the region is expected to increase as fires will decrease.