The remarks of the Minister of Cultural Heritage during his visit to Golestan province regarding the implementation of the telecabin of Kaboudvall construction project in the Hyrcanian registered forests, towards which ecological activists have protested for many years, have added to their concern of ignoring the environment and national damages.
According to the ILNA correspondent, with the visit of the President to Golestan Province, the case of building a telecabin over the Hyrcanian forests, which is referred to as the living fossil of Iran, has once again made headlines. Construction of this telecabin has been associated with controversy for the past many years, considering the fact that the Hyracania forests have been registered in the world heritage list. Any trespassing, interference and construction is to be scrutinized by the UNESCO experts.
The telecabin of Kaboudvall project was proposed in Aliabadkatoul district a few years ago and finally the implementation of this project was approved in 2019 by the Golestan provincial officials and infrastructure commission, in June 2020 by the provincial planning and development council, and in February 2020 by the high council for forests. However, global registration of the Hyracania forests caused delay in implementation of this project because part of the Hyracania forests is located in this district. Even, the approval of the high council for architecture and city planning was issued before the global registration of the Hyracania forests. Implementation of this project was approved by the high council for architecture and city planning in December 2018 while the Hyracania forests were globally registered by UNESCO in July last year.
Officials had repeatedly stated that the telecabin of Kaboudvall project had obtained all the necessary permits before the global registration of the Hyrcanian forests and was in the bidding stage, and that Kaboudvall forest park was never included in the world registration plan. This is in face of the fact that today the name of Hyracania forests is registered in the UNESCO world heritage list. Any tampering, construction activity, etc., should be done under the expertise supervision of cultural heritage experts, and of course, UNESCO experts.
After review and evaluation in the 43rd meeting of the UNESCO world heritage committee in Baku, Russian Azarbaijan, Hyracania forests, being the second largest natural heritage of Iran, was registered in the world list on July 10, 2019 (19 Tir 1398) under No. 1584. Hyrcanian forests are also known as living fossils or natural museums because many plant species found in these forests today are discovered as fossils in Europe. Scientific findings show that the historical longevity of these forests dates back to the third geological period (Jurassic) or the age of dinosaurs. It is said that about 20% of the Hyracania forests is located in Golestan province and the largest variety of animal and plant species are located in this area.
A cultural heritage expert told ILNA: “According to the existing rules and regulations, interference in the site registered on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) site is prohibited, and this section must remain intact.” If anything is intended to be done in this area first a report of the intended activity should be sent to UNESCO to take its expertise process.
He continued: “Whenever Iran requests UNESCO to do expertise work, UNESCO experts will consult Iranian experts and will finally come to an agreement, comments will be made based on the existing criteria”. If the project in question for implementing the Kaboudvall cable car project is inside the limits of the global Hyracania forests, in addition to obtaining the necessary permits from the Environment Protection Organization, a report should be sent to UNESCO for their expertise opinion. Even if the project is privately owned, UNESCO should still review it.
The cultural heritage expert stressed that the criteria for natural heritage are more sensitive than historic heritage, and said: experts may determine that doing this project in the Hyracania forest area could harm some of the Hyrcanian plant or animal species. All of these should be considered by experts.
However, some people, such as the representatives of Aliabadekatoul in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, emphasize that Golestan province has been deprived of significant tourism projects such as telecabin of Kaboudvall, and the presence of Ezatollah Zarghami (Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts) in Golestan province and visiting the model tourism area in Kaboudvall, aliabadkatoul district, can create a positive impact in the tourism field of Golestan province, especially in large scale tourism infrastructure. This is in fact of the fact that the global registration of Hyracania forests itself can be a unique source of attraction for tourism development in this province, which seems to have been neglected by the authorities.
Meanwhile, Zarghami, who was present during the 16th provincial trip of the government delegation to Golestan in the forest and dam of Kaboudvall, Aliabadkatoul, gave following comments regarding the latest decisions made for building the cable car project: “The results of the decisions made during the joint meeting of the Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture, the officials of the Forests and Environmental Protection Organization, as well as the Ministry of Cultural Heritage will count. Construction of the Aliabadkatoul telecabin is allowed outside the main limits of the globally registration area of Hyracania forests.”
During the president’s visit of Golestan province, last week, to solve the issue regarding priority projects of Golestan province, Hojatoleslam Majid Reza Fouladi, Director general of inspection and supervision department of the presidential institution, said: “The Golestan cable car project will be reviewed next week and in case there will be no legal problems, its provincial bill will be executed.
He said that a delegation has been appointed to review the Golestan and Ashuradeh island cable car projects and added: “Next week, representatives of the Environment Organization, the Provincial Inspectorate and the project consultants will visit the project site.”
The Director General of Inspection and Supervision of the Presidential Institution stated that the area of these projects would be calculated based on the consultant’s design, survey area, and accurate statistics. He reminded: If these projects have an area of more than 50,000 square meters, the decisions of the Supreme Architecture Council must be implemented. And if it is less than this area, the previous approvals of the province will be binding.
The recent statement by the authorities regarding this project, were made in spite of the fact that towards the end of 1399 (2020) Masoud Mansour, Head of the forests, rangelands, and watershed management organization, wrote in a letter to Farzaneh Sadegh Malvajard (Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development and Secretary of the Supreme Council of Urban Planning and Architecture) in late 2021: Regarding the subject of implementation of the Kaboudvall cable car project, this is to inform that following a joint meeting and recommendation of the organization and the ministry of cultural heritage, tourism and handicrafts it was decided that the head of this project, in consultation with the project consultants, will locate an area outside the registered area of Hyracania forests, for the necessary legal processing.
