By Staff Writer
Illegal soil and wood trafficking pose a major threat to the Iranian environment, but the Regime is failing to deal with it, according to the member of the Iranian Parliament for Mahabad.
In comments to the state-run ILNA news agency, Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, who is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Parliamentary Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee, explained that a marked increase in the harvesting of Zagros and western forests for illegal wood trafficking has led to major deforestation in the western regions of Iran. He blamed this on the decision to stop deforestation in northern Iran.
Mahmoudzadeh said: “After it was decided that no had the right to exploit the trees in the north for two to three years, unfortunately, in the past few months, the harvesting of Zagros forest and other western forests had a sharp increase and we have witnessed the cutting down of many trees in the west of the country.”
He criticised the Environment and Natural Resources Protection Agency for remaining silent on the issue. The wood has not solely been shipped out of the country, as you might expect, but rather much of it has been sold to domestic paper mills.
Mahmoudzadeh said: “Many dealers benefit from this, and this poses a threat to the Zagros and western forests.”
He also criticized parliament’s ineffectiveness in addressing the problem of soil trafficking, noting that for the past 15-16 years, much Iranian soil has been smuggled to the Persian Gulf region.
He said: “Mostly clay soil is smuggled, as the Gulf countries are more interested in clay soil because the soil of these countries is sandy. However, all the trafficked soil are not from natural resources, but rather more agricultural soil from farmlands that are left unused due to climate change, rainfall reduction, the drying of wells and groundwater level reduction and are bought and smuggled by traffickers.”
This practice is outlawed, except for research purposes, in order to protect the environment, but Mahmoudzadeh said that the government is failing to enforce the law.
Many environmentalists and officials have repeatedly warned about the danger of soil and wood trafficking, including reduced harvests, mudslides, or other natural disasters that could harm the country, but no action has been taken.
Sadly, it is likely that no action will be taken by the Regime, who time and time again have put profit above people. The only way to solve this crisis is through regime change.
