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Watershed Management Plan
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Objectives
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The Anzali watershed has been degraded over historical time by human activities such as over-grazing, unmanaged forestry, road construction, uncontrolled urbanization, etc. In the circumstances, the two main objectives of management must be:
- Protection of the fabric of the watershed
- Sustainable use of the natural resources of the watershed
The watershed of the Anzali Wetland covers a large area, and is managed
by various different organizations. Thus, the following sub-plans have
been incorporated into the Watershed Management Plan; (i) Rangeland Management;
(ii) Forest Management; (iii) Plain Area Management; (iv) Urbanization
Control; (v) Securing Regional Ecological Network. Figure below schematically
shows the proposed watershed management plan.
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Rangeland Management
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Objective
Rangelands (approx. 44,126 ha) constitute a very important ecosystem in the highland, and thousands of people in the area dependent upon the rangelands. The objective of rangeland management is thus "to conserve rangelands through the sustainable use of rangelands, and the reduction of erosion."
Balancing the Number of Livestock within the Carrying Capacity
The rangelands in the area are relatively productive if the overgrazing
problem is controlled. The average carrying capacity of 3 head/ha is assumed
for the purpose of this study, based on discussions with Natural Resources
General Office (NRGO) of Guilan. The total allowable number of livestock
is thus,
3 head/ha x 44,126 ha = 132,000 head
According to NRGO, graziers need to keep as many as 250 head/family to
live a reasonable life. Thus, the sustainable number of family is 132,000
head / 250 head/family = 530 families. On the other hand, there are currently
about 3,900 families keeping 382,000 head of grazing animals in the area,
which corresponds to an average stocking density of 8.6 head/ha.
In order to reduce the number of livestock, it is inevitable that the number
of graziers using the rangelands must be reduced. The government approved
the "Presidential Decree of the Council of Ministers of MOJA-DOE-MPO
on the Management of the Northern Forest" in August 2003. This decree
includes instruction to resettle graziers living in the forest area within
six years. Because roughly 90% of the graziers in the mountains fall under
this category, the number of the graziers using the rangelands will be
drastically reduced from the present about 3,900 families to about 400
families. This would therefore achieve the sustainable number of families,
530 families. It has to be pointed out this is a daunting task, because
many graziers are poor, not well-educated, and totally dependent on grazing,
and the resettlement program should be carefully designed to minimize impacts
on already disadvantaged graziers. Because the current resettlement program
by NRGO is not sufficiently focused on livelihood recovery of the resettlers,
we will re-examine the program in the subsequent study in Iran.
Erosion Control Works
Some parts of the rangelands are already degraded beyond the point of natural
recovery even if the overgrazing is controlled. For such areas, physical
erosion control measures have to be implemented to prevent further degradation
of the land and to foster natural recovery. Because it is not realistic
to implement erosion control measures at every eroded area, priorities
were set based on the extent of erosion problems, their socio-economic
impacts, and requirements for regional ecological conservation. Table summarizes
the conditions of vegetation in nine sub-basins of the Anzali Wetland catchment,
based on the results of the analysis of a satellite image taken on August
7, 2002, and the priority for erosion control works.
The design of erosion control works requires detailed field investigation. However, the watershed of Anzali Wetland is very large. In order to develop an erosion control plan, thus the upstream sub-basin of Masulehroudkhan watershed (175 ha) was studied as a model basin. Based on this study, the proposed erosion control works for the entire watershed were estimated as below.
| Category |
Measures |
Unit nos.(/km2) |
Area (km2) |
Total numbers |
| Structural Measures |
Concrete Check Dam |
1.7 |
76.6 |
130 nos. |
| Gabion Check Dam |
37 |
76.7 |
2,838 nos. |
| Wooden Dam |
12 |
76.7 |
920 nos. |
| Contour Bund |
2.5 |
76.7 |
192 km |
| Biological Measures |
Seeding |
- |
All Areas |
76.7 km2 |
| Fertilizing |
- |
All Areas |
76.7 km2 |
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Forest Management
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Objectives
 The study area is blessed with rich deciduous forests, and the government has given a high priority to conservation of the Northern Forest. In accordance with the government policy for forest management, the objectives of the forest management plan are "Conservation of the forest according to sustainable development principles", and "Restoration of degraded forests to near natural conditions".
Conservation of Protected Forests
Figure shows the protected forests designated by DOE and NRGO. These areas should be protected according to the Environmental Protection Act (1992) and Law on Protection and Exploitation of Forest and Rangelands (1967).
Reforestation
NRGO's goal for forest protection is to restore the forest to its conditions
in 1963. In order to achieve this goal, NRGO has a plan to reforest 182
km2 over the next seven years. This NRGO's plan is adopted in this master
plan because it covers essentially all the degraded areas identified in
this study, and other areas, such as margins of forests that had been converted
to rangelands by grazing activities in the past. See the figure below.
Environmentally-sustainable Forestry Practice
Forests in the following watersheds will be used for forestry: Chafroud, Morghak, Pasikhan and Siahroud. For these watersheds, forest management should be carried out in accordance with the Forest Plan approved by the Forest, Rangeland and Soil Council of NRGO. The Forest Plan specifies various mechanisms for sustainable forestry practices, such as selective cutting, and 70% of the sales to be spent on the watershed management activities.
Measures to Prevent Landslide and Slope Collapse
A umber of roads has been constructed in the forest for traffic and regional economic activities. Unfortunately, no special attention seems to be paid to prevent slope collapse and landslides, and there are 20 landslide areas in the Anzali Wetland watershed. The construction of roads in the forest area should be minimized. If road construction is inevitable, adequate study should be made before construction.
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Plain Area Management
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The amount of sediment run-off from the plain area (58,000 tons/year) is considered to be low compared to the mountain areas (362,000 tons/year). Given the low quantity of sediment runoff in the plain area, it is not practical to take countermeasures for each sediment source namely rice paddies, farmlands, river bank erosion and urban runoff.
The effectiveness of sediment trap basins to control inflow of sediment into Siahkeshim protected area was studied. While a sediment trap basin of approximately 10,000 m2 is able to trap about 40% of the incoming sediment (64,000 tons/year) to Siahkhesim, the annual cost for removal of sediment is about 200 million Rials. Annual sediment deposit without the basin is estimated at only 0.6 cm/year assuming that all sediment is deposited in 20% of Siahkeshim. The construction of sediment trap basins were therefore not practical.
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Urbanization Control
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Urbanization in the Anzali Wetland watershed can have negative impacts
on the wetland ecosystem for various reasons, such as direct pressure from
urban development (especially to the northern part of the wetland), increase
of pollution loads to the wetland, decrease of habitable natural areas
etc. The urbanization should be carefully controlled. It is proposed to
take actions such as revision of the outdated Anzali City Master Plan,
co-ordination of relevant organizations in provincial development, mandatory
execution of EIA, etc. |
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Securing Regional Ecological Network
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In order to protect the ecological integrity of the Anzali Wetland, it is not sufficient to protect the wetland alone. This is because many animals, especially birds and fish, have habitats larger than the Anzali Wetland, and are supported by the environment of the region far larger than the wetland. To protect the ecological integrity of the Anzali Wetland, there is need to secure the regional ecological network that connects other wetlands, rivers, lakes and ponds and other ecologically important areas, as shown in Figure . |
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Institutional and Organizational Arrangement
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Many organizations are involved in land management of the watershed of the Anzali Wetland, and coordination among these organizations is very important for integrated environmental management. The following institutional and organizational arrangement is proposed.
- Coordination for environmental management in mountains (NRGO and DOE)
- Coordination for resettlement program among relevant organizations (NRGO,
Cultivation Dept. of MOJA, Livestock Affairs Dept. of MOJA, Rural Water
and Wastewater Company, EMDAD, relevant cooperatives, others)
- Revision of resettlement guidelines
- Information sharing between NRGO/Watershed Management Dept. of MOJA and
Regional Water Organization of Ministry of Energy.
- Coordination for land use management for urbanization control (Housing
and Urban Development Organizations, Provincial Governor's Engineering
Office, NRGO, DOE, etc.)
- Coordination for regional environmental management
- Regulatory reform for major land use management
- Merging of NRGO and Watershed Management Department of MOJA
- Capacity development for environmental management
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