Tehran, July 11, 2007 - Not long ago, the rangelands in Hosseinabad, a rural area in the Southern Khorasan province in Iran near the border with Afghanistan, had been abandoned as a result of severe soil erosion. Today, about three million new seedlings and trees in over 6000 hectares of degraded rangelands havebrought back life to the land.

In a period of four years, 900 local villagers, nearly half of them women, have been planting trees to reduce soil erosion caused by the 120-day-long Sistan or summer winds and overgrazing by livestock, a step that has also contributed to reducing green-house gas emissions, since trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The Government of Iran and UNDP, with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the Iranian Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Organization (FRWO) have supported this carbon sequestration initiative through a joint project.

"One of the unique aspects of this pilot project is the location of the project site" said UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Elzira Sagynbaeva. "While carbon sequestration activities around the world are normally carried out in forest areas where trees are abundant to capture carbon, this project selected one of the most arid regions of Iran for this purpose, and it h

as shown results", noted Ms. Sagynbaeva, adding, "The initiative lays great emphasis on local communities taking charge of their own development needs and on their income generation and livelihoods. This will guarantee that these achievements will sustain even after UNDP is gone," she added. 

Under the project Village Development Groups have been formed, including both men and women to work together to manage their own lands. Villagers in this area have also been encouraged to burn less firewood for heating and cooking by promoting the use of solar energy and gas and alternate livelihood opportunities were provided to generate income by means other than raising livestock to prevent further degradation of their lands.

"Earlier we had to go to the rangeland to collect brushwood, but there was less and less brushwood out there every year," says Mrs. Samiei, a VDG member, while kneading whole-wheat dough for bread with her rough and calloused hands. "Now with these gas ovens, we don't have to cut wood and I have more time to look after my kids. Besides, these ovens are much cleaner than the traditional ones," she added. In four years time, fuel-wood consumption has halved in the area from 800 kilogram per household per yearin 2003.

The project has offered extensive job training to villagers and helped them set up micro-credit facility that provides small collateral-free loans to low-income villagers to help them start small businesses in handicrafts and other fields. Women now help their families generate additional income by doing mushroom farming, carpet weaving, embroidery, local herbsprocessing and jam/pickle making, to name a few. This has been a welcome change in the lives of impoverished communities that depended mainly on raising livestock on the sparsely planted rangelands  for their livelihoods. Mrs. Zari Saadati, 35, said she earned as much as 40 dollars a month by selling  rosewater and processed medicinal herbs that she produced by a simple processor she bought using the 100  dollar loan she got from the community fund.

This is seen as a substantial income supplement in the village  where she livesand she has paid back over half of the loan's installments.

In a recent regular VDG meeting with government officials, the local villagers, including most noticeably women, confidently spoke about their difficulties and needs. In a patriarchal community, where women are not often  seen to speak out their views in the presence of men, this is something of an achievement in terms  of empowering women socially, besides improving their lives economically. "The programme has  benefited from and built on successful experiences from South Asia" said National Project Manager Mr. Gholamabbas Abdinezhad, referring to the valuable contributions of UNDP  technical advisor Mr. Prabhu Budhathoki from Nepal that helped shape the project from its inception. "Now the project has been such a success the Government is interested  in replicating it in other provinces. We also have a lot to share with other developing countries and we plan to invite others to visit our project and learn from its lessons" added Mr. Abdinezhad, who is also a Director-General in the office  that deals with combating desertification in FRWO.