Khalil Aghaee, Deputy Minister and Head of Forests, Range and Watershed
Management Organization (FRWO) who is attending the High Level Segment of the
14th Conference of Parties (COP14) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification
under the topic “Restore Land to Sustain Life” from 9-10 September 2019 in
New Delhi- India, reiterated the commitment of Iran in cooperating with other
members SDS Coalition.

He added that Iran voluntarily supports Land Degradation
Neutrality (LDN) in line with the realization of the UN Sustainable
development goals that aims at the development and restoration of natural
ecosystems.  

Aghaee said that we have to employ a holistic and
integrated approach in order to improve the status of forests and rangelands
in the world  

He referred to the landmark logging ban plan in the
Caspian forests and said that the plan prohibited logging operations in the
Hyrcanian ancient forests in north part of Iran by the Parliament approval
since two years ago.   

According to FRWO’s website, Over 3,000 participants from
all over the world participated in COP14. The Parties to the Convention will
agree on the actions each will take over the next two years and beyond to get
us on a sustainable development path. 

The coalition's focus area will be the development of the
SDS source base map to improve monitoring of SDS and develop better response.

The coalition includes UNE nvironment, International Civil
Aviation Organization, UN-Habitat, United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe, World Meteorological Organization, World Health Organization, UN
Development Programme, World Bank, International Union for Conservation of
Nature, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Institute for
Training and Research and International Telecommunication Union.