The Iranian government is failing to tackle devastating environmental catastrophes affecting the country, and persecuting campaigners trying to raise awareness of the impact on communities, a new book says.
The country's rulers have failed to provide any comprehensive plan, despite the concerning state of Iran's natural environment.
Much of the environmental damage and destruction has been caused by inadequate management and harmful economic and development activities.
The book highlights government and affiliated organisations' extraction and exploitation of natural resources, the efforts of marginalised communities to achieve environmental justice, and the fragmented nature of Iran's emerging environmental protest movement.
In Environmental Challenges and Movements on the Margins, Beyond the Centre, Dr Allan Hassaniyan, from the University of Exeter, shows how environmental movements in Iran's central regions have emerged, their structures and objectives and their significant role in conflicts.
Issues facing communities in Iran include water scarcity, extensive deforestation and land erosion, as well as desiccation and devastation of lakes, lagoons and rivers, and air pollution and frequent sandstorms.
The disproportionate construction of dams and inter-basin water transfer projects, along with the excessive use of surface and underground water resources in Iran, has led to substantial deforestation and desertification, water contamination, depletion of wetlands and lakes.
This has displaced communities, caused disruptive effects on water users and ecosystems downstream and resulted in changes to the management of local resources and economic disturbance.
Kurdistan's natural environment is being devastated by military drills, man-made forest fires and the plundering of natural resources.
The government views genuine critical environmentalism as a threat to its authority and interests. This has led to the securitisation of environmental activism, resulting in various forms of repression and violation of the human rights of civic and environmental activists, including persecution, imprisonment and, in some cases, assassination and execution.
Iran's environmental movements consist of organisations and NGOs organised by individuals. The licence conferred upon NGOs specifies the region where they are permitted to operate. This enables the government and its security and intelligence agencies to more effectively monitor their activities and limit their influence. This diminishes their capacity to mobilise, especially during pivotal moments of public protest.
Deaths of prominent Kurdish environmental activists Sharif Bajwar and Omid Hussanzadeh prompted Dr Hassiniyan to investigate the motives behind the IRGC and other intelligence and armed forces of the regime targeting environmental NGOs for assassination and deliberately setting fire to Kurdistan's forests, farms and other natural sites. He examined policy papers, government documents and interviewed environmental activists and scientists.
Dr Hassaniyan said: "The development and economic policies and practices of successive Iranian governments, along with the mismanagement and exploitation of natural resources, have resulted in significant socioeconomic, political and ecological injustices in these regions and provinces.
"Aside from the significant loss of life and various human rights violations, the primary consequences has been to limit creativity, innovations and proliferation, when these could have provided alternative, sustainable solutions to Iran's complex environmental issues.
