First published on 09/05/2013, and last updated on 03/05/2018
By: the Centre for Sustainable Development and Environment – CENESTA (Member)
National parks in Iran have the highest status of protection among all categories of protected areas. Nayband National Park is the first marine and coastal park of the country. As a sign of recognition of the established role of the indigenous communities in the Assalouyeh region, the government recently decided to transfer the governance responsibility of Nayband National Park to them, with the support of all the other stakeholders.
Based on CENESTA’s previous work under an European Commission grant to the Living Earth Foundation in the Assalouyeh region as well as the successful preparatory work in co-management, the Department of Environment (DoE) entrusted CENESTA to prepare in February/March 2013 a plan for the transfer of governance. Cenesta staff travelled to the Assalouyeh region to organize several meetings. A community organisations general assembly meeting was also held at Abu-Bakr al Seddiq Mosque in Chah Mobarak village, where they elected the management board of Nayband Sustainable Development Organisation. The European Commission-funded “Dialogue and Development” project supported the process of transferring governance responsibility to key stakeholders, notably the local and indigenous people of Assalouyeh.
As a result of this process, a comprehensive report has been prepared about the ecological characteristics, the history of protection, and the current threats to the ecological integrity of the marine and coastal area of the Nayband National Marine and Coastal Park. A zoning and governance plan for the park was also prepared. Under this project, Cenesta received enthusiastic support from DoE and the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) as well as the IIES (Institute of International Energy Studies). The agreement between DoE and Cenesta calls for making this case a model to be replicated to many of the other 250 protected areas in the country.
