Evaluating the Implementation Success of the Plan to Stop Forest Exploitation in Northern Iran (Case Study: Guilan Province)

The concept of "breathing the forest" in Iran was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Organization in the early 80s. Specialists in biological sciences believe that by implementing this plan, the lost parts of the forests can be restored.They say that the forests of the north need a 10-year rest period during which the industrial exploitation of the forests in this area should be stopped and managed with full supervision. On the other hand, the opponents of this idea believe that abandoning the forest under any title is contrary to conservation. From the point of view of this group, the implementation of the plan to stop exploitation means the closure of forestry projects, while they believe that forestry projects are a tool for managing forest areas.

The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the plan in question from the point of view of different stakeholders such as natural resources departments, environmental departments, and the forest dwellers have been successful or not after several years of the implementation of the plan to stop exploitation in the forests of the north of the country. In this research, data on the amount of wood smuggling, the number of land use changes and encroachment on forest areas, the number of fires, and also the amount of wood supply to the wood and paper industries of Gilan province during the two periods before the plan to stop exploitation and after the implementation of the plan to stop exploitation were collected from the General Directorate of Natural Resources of Gilan Province. Then, the data were analyzed using the comparison of averages (t-test) in SPSS software version 26.

The results showed that the plan to stop exploitation in some cases shows a significant difference based on the reduction of damage such as cases of destruction and seizure of national lands, slashing and burning, cutting saplings, and the release of national lands shows a noticeable change (P- Value≤0.5. Also, the results of this research indicated that this project did not cause a significant difference compared to the past in terms of tree and shrub cutting, firewood and wood discoveries, and the number and area of fires (P-Value≥0.5). It can be stated that based on the studies and using the background of the research, the criteria in a questionnaire were provided to the forest science and engineering experts and they were given points according to the opinion of the experts and the main factors that were above 80 % had obtained the highest score and were identified as the main effective indicators. Regarding the second question of the research, it can be said that the secondary factors were extracted from the library sources and past research background according to the main factors, and they were given points according to the opinion of the experts, and the factors that were above 80% received the highest score andwere identified as influential indicators.

This research is particularly important from the point of view of creating a perspective for decision-making for managers in the field of forest management because it examines the effectiveness of plans and decisions, and this process can be repeated periodically to help decision-making. Finally, with the implementation of the forest rest plan, any harvesting of the forest will be stopped within 10 years, with the justification that the forest can repair the damage caused by illegal harvesting during this time. What is the main content of this idea or demand is to stop wood exploitation in the form of existing forestry plans. However, what adds to the importance of this issue is that if people who are not experts in forestry introduce a solution, it is rejected from a scientific point of view. We give the right environmentalists and those who sympathize with the forest to shout that the state of the forest is not good, but it is the responsibility of the forest experts to provide the solution. Since forest management covers a wide range of economic, social, ecological, and employment issues, this issue should be dealt with more sensitively and all aspects should be taken into account in this respect. Using the opinion of experts in this field and determining the desired hierarchy, criteria, and indicators in this regard can be a good solution for this problem. In order to achieve sustainable management, it is necessary to extract and examine the opinions of experts. The results of this research, which were taken from the experts and experts in the forest field, also showed that considering all the criteria and indicators, from their point of view, any plan in the forest with the names of rest and breathing does not have a scientific basis, and a revision in this field is necessary. Although all the experts have acknowledged the existence of disadvantages in the existing plans, they have considered the solution to be updating and fixing the disadvantages of the current plans.