مهار بيابان‌زايي

1.1.                 Cautionary evidence

Despite the intelligence and expertise of our ancestors regarding the exploitation of their fragile environment, other evidence and remarks of ignorance and unwise decisions of local governments regarding land use and desertification control exist that together with population growth, boosted soil degradation and extended the boundaries of deserts from their natural limits.

In 1903, in his book entitled: “The pulse of Asia”, Huntington wrote: “Today it is impossible to pass an army from the borders of Balouchestan” and refers to St. John’s words as: “In our time it was very difficult for Crassus to pass his heavy cargo and elephants from Hirmand river through an arid desert to reach Narmashir (Hedin, 1910)”. According to archeological researches carried out in Burned City in Sistan, the traces of a kind of 5000 year old wood termites and beetles were found on wooden furniture. Regarding the case that these insects usually live in warm and humid tropical forests, experts deducted that at that time Hirmand and Sistan region were green and covered with forest trees. Even recent studies show that due to erosion of soil, the present time cultivated lands and plantation covers are approximately 3 meteres lower than the cultivated lands of 3000 B.C. (Lashkaripour, 1998 referred to Sajadi,1995). Based on evidence found, The Burned City was inhabited for a thousand years and a probable reason for its evacuation (along political and social troubles) in 2200 B.C., was the scarcity of water resources and low productivity of the lands of the region (Lashkaripour, 1998 and Cultural Inheritance Organization, 1999[1])

Naser Khosro Ghobadiani (4^th Hejri century) wrote in his travelog: “We traveled from Shoushtar to Ahwaz in the shade of the trees and we never sweated.” But today in a place called “Abdolkhan” on the Andimeshk-Ahwaz main road, the sand dunes cover the road and other places such as Hamidieh, Albarayeh, Kambouyeh, Sousangerd and Azadegan Plain experience the same (Maleki, 1988).

And this is what happened to the extended plains of Kerman, Balouchestan, Fars and Semnan, etc. regions where famous European and ancient orientalists and explorers i.e. Herodotus, Lord Curzon, Holdige and Marco Polo talked about them as prosperous areas with dense plant coverage. For example in his travelog 731 years ago (1272 A.D.), the Venetian explorer, Marco Polo wrote about a city called Camadi, winter capital of Kerman, with castles and extensive orchards and prosperous economy; and 800 years ago Afzal Kerman talked about a city called “Qamadin” which is completely destroyed according to Bastani Parizi (Pastani Parizi, 1995). The Swedish scientist, Sven Hedin who traveled from Sabzevar to Mashhad 618 years after Marco Polo could not believe in what Polo had written in his travelog. Hedin wrote in his book: “Marco Polo described a 6 days trip in beautiful and green valleys and mountains with wonderful rangelands, fruit orchards and productive farms, while today the East of Sabzevar is a desert (Hedin, 1910)”. Of course Marco Polo’s descriptions of his difficult trip through Central desert of Iran and the harsh nature of the region with undrinkable waters were fully confirmed by Hedin and he concluded that the physical situation of the deserts of Iran have been the same since long time ago and it is because of the climatic factors of the area (Hedin, 1910). Skoland (1927) and Sikes (1930) continued the studies of Hedin and came to the same conclusions regarding the origin of the large Desert of Iran. Based on the information extracted from the maps of Ptolemy in 2 A.D., the name of the desert of Kerman in its present location (Dasht-e-Kavir) is mentioned Carmania Deserta, and even the location of Yazd city by name of Izetiche is mentioned in South East of Kerman (Pourkamal, 1970).

In another document, it was mentioned that during the reign of Torkan Khatoon (650-690 Hejri) in outskirts of Babak city (Kerman province), a garden with an area of 900 square meters and hundred thousands trees and an aqueduct full of water was built, of which nothing is left today. (Bastani Parizi, 1995). Even the officers of Nassereddin Shah Qajar, i.e. Firouz Mirza (1880 A.D.), described a region with excellent plantation coverage in their travelogs on Balouchestan (Bastani Parizi, 1995), however after that the condition of the region has been more agreeable.

As you see, the above mentioned facts confirm a continued reducing trend of natural resources of Iran; a trend that the interference of the natural factors in its occurrence or aggravation, regarding the short period of time in geological scale, is undoubtedly very weak.

However, only at the beginning of the 20^th century and especially its second half, the first organized movements with the support of the Central Government started with the purpose of better management of the natural environments of the country.