October 2004

The role of local institutions in reducing vulnerability to recurrent natural disasters and in sustainable livelihoods development

Case study: The role of Qashqai nomadic communities in reducing vulnerability to recurrent drought and sustainable livelihoods development in Iran

Prepared by CENESTA
(Centre for Sustainable Development), Iran
for the Rural Institutions and Participation Service
FAO Rural Development Division

More than 90% of Iran’s surface is arid or semi-arid land and pastoral communities have always played an important role in food production by developing creative and sustainable systems for the use of scarce natural resources. Although migrating pastoralists number only about 2% of the entire population (1.3 million pastoralists) according to government figures, they satisfy about one quarter of the country’s livestock needs.

The pressures of drought, debt and pro-sedentarisation policies are driving pastoralists to abandon their livelihoods systems and settle permanently in villages and cities. However, there is lack of jobs for settled pastoralists. Furthermore experiences with industrial livestock production—the main alternative to pastoral livestock production—have not been promising. This case study seeks to understand how local pastoral communities could play a role in the management of drought in Iran. It begins with an examination of the range of organisations that are involved in drought management in Iran. The next section focuses on the experience of the drought of 1999-2001 in the words of Qashqai pastoralists from the south of Iran. Their testimonies make a strong case for increasing the involvement of local communities in managing natural disasters that affect them.

This case study also attempts to present a more in-depth look at the system for managing natural disasters in Iran and particularly the new National Comprehensive Plan for Relief and Rescue. There are both positive and negative aspects of the comprehensive plan, but perhaps the most important recommendation would be to design a national plan that put the citizens of the country at its centre. The current plan is supposed to be implemented by a maze of overlapping committees and working groups with no clear picture of how a local community could negotiate its way through such a system to play a more active role. Legal obstacles to registering non-governmental and community-based organisations present another major difficulty in envisioning a national plan that could involve local communities since legal registration is a prerequisite for any social group to become active. Lastly, the development of a national plan with local community involvement would require local communities to be organised into coalitions or unions at the national level. Since this is currently not the case, the recommendation is to start building up experiences from the most local levels, with the ultimate goal of arriving at a full national plan of cooperation.

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