Kashafrud Protected River Gets a Comprehensive Ecosystemic Management Plan

Ali Arvahi, the national manager of Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Project, reports on holding the Third Workshop on Devising a Comprehensive Ecosystemic Management Plan for Kashafrud River in order to determine the organizational structure as well as protocols for monitoring this plan.

Mentioning the process of preparing comprehensive management plans for aquatic ecosystems, the national manager of Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Project added: “considering the increasing importance of wetlands and lakes, and their numerous values and functions for providing service to human societies, protected rivers are also considered for devising ecosystemic management plans. For instance, a comprehensive management plan based on an ecosystemic approach for Kashafrud River is underway, and in this regard, the Third Workshop for preparing this plan was held in Mashhad with the presence of all the stakeholders.”
“in this workshop, the stakeholders for this river, identified and set the strategies for participatory protection and revival of this river in the form of an intradepartmental organizational structure for the management of the river”, added Arvahi. He also mentioned the importance of monitoring the execution of this plan as well as the physical conditions of the river, and added that “monitoring protocols are among the most important components of the management plan, and in this workshop, the organizations responsible for monitoring as well as the method of monitoring were determined with the help of all stakeholders”.
Then, Arvahi discussed the problems and threats for this river and said: “one of the main threats for this river is the establishment of polluting sources on the banks of this river, and the fact that various types of wastewater are entering the river. In particular, this issue has created a number of problems for the ecosystem of this river in the downstream areas in Mashhad City. However, he argued that with the help and participation of Municipality of Razavi Khorasan Province, Mashhad City Hall, and the General Office of Environment, these problems and threats were being dealt with and mitigated.