Zangan has 73,000 hectares of natural forest. Most of the tree species in these forests are mountain pistachio, hawthorn, juniper and oak, of which 20,000-21,000 hectares are spruce. As most of the country’s forests have been reduced as a result of drought, climate change, human intervention, timber smuggling and fires, conservation of natural resources and increase in forest area have become a major goal. This goal is to improve the lives of local residents. Trees are planted on thousands of hectares of dry land every year with the participation of residents. These trees include hawthorn, wild pear, mountain pistachio, legumes, barberry, wild almonds, mountain figs and thyme and cumin. Once these trees bear fruit, local people can use their fruits to provide for their livelihoods, resulting in an increase in forest tree species, which in turn increases water resources and restores destroyed forests and forest ecosystems.
Majid Maani, head of the Zangan Region Forestry Department, told Tasnim XA, “There are two plans for afforestation, the first is to expand the forest by planting seedlings, and the second is to enrich the forest by planting seedlings. The goal is to increase the number of forests in the region in order to increase the per capita forest area. In 1998, 110 hectares were planted with birch and hawthorn trees in the Jamalabad region of Tarim district. In 1997, 20 hectares of mountain pistachios and wild legumes were planted in the Idalu region of Zanjan Shahristan by rain-fed irrigation to prevent soil destruction and runoff.
Majid Maani said that the Koshken Forest Tinge Planting Complex currently meets the master’s need for seedlings, but if the necessary trust is allocated, it can provide forest seedlings to neighboring masters and become the largest forest seedling center in the west of the country.
