The Conservation of Biodiversity in Iran: Threats, Challenges and Hopes

Jowkar, Houman; Ostrowski, Stéphane; Tahbaz, Morad; Zahler, Peter

doi:10.1080/00210862.2016.1241602

Cited by 60 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Thus, with increasing anthropogenic pressure via pastoralism, urbanization, and road construction as well as ongoing global warming, mountain species are under increasing threat and need to be more strongly protected. According to the IUCN Red List, about one hundred species of the vertebrate fauna in Iran are considered vulnerable or already endangered 73 . For plants, nearly 60% of endemic vascular plant species of Iran are range-restricted and can be categorized as IUCN threatened species.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endemic diversity and distribution of the Iranian vascular flora across phytogeographical regions, biodiversity hotspots and areas of endemism

Noroozi

Talebi

Doostmohammadi

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Endemism is one of the most important concepts in biogeography and is of high relevance for conservation biology. Nevertheless, our understanding of patterns of endemism is still limited in many regions of high biodiversity. This is also the case for Iran, which is rich in biodiversity and endemism, but there is no up-to-date account of diversity and distribution of its endemic species. In this study, a comprehensive list of all endemic vascular plant species of Iran, their taxonomic composition and their geographical distribution are presented. To this end, a total of 2,597 (sub)endemic vascular plant species of Iran were documented and their distribution in three phytogeographical regions, two biodiversity hotspots and five areas of endemism were analysed. The Irano-Turanian phytogeographical region harbours 88% of the Iranian endemics, the majority of which are restricted to the Irano-Anatolian biodiversity hotspot (84%). Nearly three quarters of the endemic species are restricted to mountain ranges. The rate of endemism increases along an elevational gradient, causing the alpine zone to harbour a disproportionally high number of endemics. With increasing pastoralism, urbanization, road construction and ongoing climate change, the risk of biodiversity loss in the Iranian mountains is very high, and these habitats need to be more effectively protected.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endemic diversity and distribution of the Iranian vascular flora across phytogeographical regions, biodiversity hotspots and areas of endemism

Noroozi

Talebi

Doostmohammadi

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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“…Iran is currently facing extreme water and environmental management challenges [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The country's technological approach to address water shortages through a large network of dams, inter-basin water transfer projects, and groundwater withdrawal has proven inadequate as water demands keep growing in the face of dwindling natural water supply and newly developed surface water and groundwater resources [1,2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Groundwater‒Energy‒Food Nexus in Iran’s Agricultural Sector: Implications for Water Security

Mirzaei

Saghafian

Mirchi

et al. 2019

Water

104

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This paper presents the first groundwater‒energy‒food (GEF) nexus study of Iran’s agronomic crops based on national and provincial datasets and firsthand estimates of agricultural groundwater withdrawal. We use agronomic crop production, water withdrawal, and energy consumption data to estimate groundwater withdrawal from electric-powered irrigation wells and examine agronomic productivity in Iran’s 31 provinces through the lens of GEF nexus. The ex-post GEF analysis sheds light on some of the root causes of the nation’s worsening water shortage problems. Access to highly subsidized water (surface water and groundwater) and energy has been the backbone of agricultural expansion policies in Iran, supporting employment in agrarian communities. Consequently, water use for agronomic crop production has greatly overshot the renewable water supply capacity of the country, making water bankruptcy a serious national security threat. Significant groundwater table decline across the country and increasing energy consumption underscore dysfunctional feedback relations between agricultural water and energy price and groundwater withdrawal in an inefficient agronomic sector. Thus, it is essential to implement holistic policy reforms aimed at reducing agricultural water consumption to alleviate the looming water bankruptcy threats, which can lead to the loss of numerous agricultural jobs in the years to come.

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“…The scientific literature has repeatedly raised concerns about the striking impacts of economic sanctions on health, food, and human rights (Butler, 2013; Danaei et al, 2019; Habibzadeh, 2018; Kokabisaghi, 2018; Mohammadi, 2013; Moret, 2015; Palaniappa, 2013; Peksen, 2009; Shahabi et al, 2015; Takian et al, 2020). Sanctions are believed to also have impacts on the environment (Carucci, 2000; Fotourehchi, 2020; Jowkar et al, 2016; Lewis & Madani, 2016; Madani & Hakim, 2016; Portela, 2016; Soroosh & Madani, 2014; UNICEF, 2012). But the short‐term and long‐term environmental impacts of economic sanctions remain unverified.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How International Economic Sanctions Harm the Environment

Madani

2020

Earth's Future

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As soft political tools, economic sanctions aim at isolating a sanctioned state and hurt its economy to force it to change course, policies, and actions. In response to sanctions and to evade their grip, a sanctioned state adopts a range of survivalist, aggressive, and unsustainable policies that reduce the economic pressure of sanctions at the expense of accelerated environmental degradation. While economic sanctions cannot be blamed as the cause of environmental problems in sanctioned states, their role in catalyzing environmental degradation is noteworthy. This paper takes the first step in setting the theoretical ground for exploring the environmental implications of sanctions by developing a generic causal model that explains how economic sanctions can impact the environment. It is shown that sanctions lower the priority of the environmental sector in the public policy agenda in a sanctioned state and increase the natural resource-intensity of its economy. It is argued that although the environmental damages of sanctions are mainly unintended by the sanctioning and sanctioned states, such damages are unavoidable in practice. The study calls for attention to the transgenerational and transboundary environmental impacts of economic sanctions and their justice and human rights implications for which the sanctioning and sanctioned states must be held accountable. Plain Language Summary By targeting the economy of a sanctioned state, sanctions are used to force the sanctioned state's policy makers to change their actions. But the impacts of economic sanctions on a country can go beyond its economic sector and cause significant collateral damages to ordinary citizens and their economic welfare. Economic sanctions are also associated with significant unintended environmental impacts that have major health, justice, and human rights implications. This study explains how the current economic sanctioning schemes turn the environmental sector into an inevitable victim of the battle between the sanctioning states, seeking behavioral change through economic pressure, and the sanctioned state, determined to pursue its so-called "abnormal" plans at the expense of causing damages to its natural resources.

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The Conservation of Biodiversity in Iran: Threats, Challenges and Hopes

Cited by 60 publications

References 13 publications

Endemic diversity and distribution of the Iranian vascular flora across phytogeographical regions, biodiversity hotspots and areas of endemism

Endemic diversity and distribution of the Iranian vascular flora across phytogeographical regions, biodiversity hotspots and areas of endemism

The Groundwater‒Energy‒Food Nexus in Iran’s Agricultural Sector: Implications for Water Security

How International Economic Sanctions Harm the Environment

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