DoE to establish four new biosphere reserves
Iran will designate at least four new biosphere reserves to expand its protected network, Vice President Shina Ansari told the 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves in China on September 22, saying the current coverage of “less than 4%” of national territory was not enough.
The pledge comes as Tehran faces mounting ecological pressures from climate change, water shortages and recent regional hostilities, IRNA reported.
Ansari, who also heads Iran’s Department of Environment (DoE), said the expansion would strengthen the country’s 13 registered sites, which already include wetlands, mountain ranges, deserts and coastal areas.
Since June 13, she said, Israeli strikes had hit Iranian civilian infrastructure, from hospitals and fuel depots to water distribution plants.
These attacks, she warned, had worsened carbon emissions and “severely” damaged ecosystems. “The consequences extend beyond national borders,” Ansari told delegates, calling the raids both “unprovoked” and a threat to food security and public health across the wider Middle East.
Iran’s biosphere zones, she noted, are often tied to the ancestral lands of nomadic and rural communities, whose traditional livelihoods embody “unique strategies” for sustainable living.
Long before the idea of sustainable development was globalized, she argued, these groups had devised ways to cope with droughts, heatwaves and other environmental hazards. Their knowledge, she said, is “a valuable and inspiring capital” for the world.
Ansari confirmed Tehran was ready to align with the so-called Hangzhou Action Plan, a United Nations framework launched in 2023 to step up climate cooperation.
She proposed “twinning” projects between Iranian reserves and foreign counterparts to foster joint research, technology exchange and specialist visits. Such peer-to-peer mechanisms, she added, could ripple outwards and “inspire” surrounding landscapes.
Yet many of Iran’s existing reserves are already reeling from record temperatures and water stress. “More than ever,” Ansari cautioned, “we need solidarity, experience-sharing and support from the global biosphere network to boost resilience.”
She argued that UNESCO members have the capacity to counter unilateralism and reinforce multilateralism in defending what she called the “common home” of humanity.
The reserves, she said, are not only sanctuaries for biodiversity but symbols of peaceful coexistence between people and nature, and a bridge between modern science and indigenous wisdom.
The Hangzhou Action Plan underscores urgent collective action to cut greenhouse gases, mobilize green finance and accelerate renewable technologies in line with the Paris Agreement.
The four-day Beijing congress, which runs through September 26, seeks to align biosphere priorities with international accords such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.