Dr. Noureddin Mona, FAO Representative in Islamic Republic of Iran attended the national ceremony for celebration of World Day to Combat Desertification.

Desert Affairs Bureau of Forest, Range and Watershed Organization of Islamic Republic of Iran arranged a national ceremony to celebrate this event. FAO Representative contributed in the celebration by putting his speech notes on the negative impacts of desertification and added that management of soil and water resources is in the heart of the efforts to be conducted given this year’s theme for the Day i.e. Drought and Water Scarcity. He also stated that almost all developing countries in the whole world as well as all countries in the Near East and North Africa region are suffering from scarcity of water resources. A regional big initiative on water scarcity has been already started by FAO he added, to support countries for developing national policies, strategies and practices to cope with this ever increasing challenge.

Dr. Mona mentioned to the on-going GEF co-funded project which aims to rehabilitate degraded landscapes in arid and semi-arid ecosystems of two South Khorasan and Kerman provinces through applying Sustainable Land and Forest Management (SLFM) approach. He also addressed supports of the Government of Italy for conjunctive management of agricultural water in Lower Mesopotamia Basin in three countries of Iran, Iraq and Syria as a tool to respond to the existing regional water shortages.

During the event real beneficiaries of the FAO project in Kerman Province i.e. representatives of local communities delivered their very simple but influencing positive feedback about the real impacts of conducted initiatives on the ground and sought continuous support from FAO and the Government to their livelihoods while they thanked all endeavors conducted so far.

Dr. Mona also accompanied Deputy Minister and Head of Forest, Range and Watershed Organization and United Nations Resident Coordinator, Mr. Gary Lewis in a field visit to semi-arid areas of Tehran province in Malard District where best practices of the joint UNDP-Government project of Carbon Sequestration is being up-scaled.