Risk of Cutting Down 90,000 Trees in Zagros if 'Lirok Dam' Project is Implemented Despite Opposition

Officials from the 'Natural Resources' and 'Environment' organizations have reported that a significant portion of the country's natural habitat in the 'Zagros' region is at risk if the construction of a dam, which has been delayed for sixteen years, proceeds. Naqi Shabaniyan, the deputy head of Iran's Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, told the 'ILNA' news agency that the environmental and natural resources organizations 'have not yet issued any permits for the construction of the Lirok Dam and power plant.' He stated that there is a possibility of 'cutting down a number of trees in the Zagros forests' with the construction of the Lirok Dam, adding that the potential cutting of '41,000 trees' has been reported in the 'environmental assessment report' submitted by the project's consulting company to the Environmental Protection Organization. In recent months, the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Energy's planning for the construction of the 'Lirok Dam' in the 'Central Zagros' region, on the border of Lorestan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari provinces, has raised concerns among environmental activists about the possibility of another destructive dam being built in the country's forested areas. Pourmoghaddam, the manager of hydropower projects at the Water Power Company, stated in August 2022 that the Lirok Dam would be revived after a '15-year' hiatus in its execution stages. This senior official from the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Energy claimed regarding the environmental consequences of the project that 'every project has environmental consequences,' asserting that 'there were environmental consequences in the implementation of the Lirok Dam, which we tried to mitigate.' According to Mojtaba Ahour, the deputy for human environment at the Lorestan Environmental Protection Agency, the 'review of the report' on the environmental assessment of the Lirok Dam and power plant and the 'determination of whether to issue or not issue a permit for construction and filling' of this dam has been handed over to the environmental report evaluation office at the Environmental Protection Organization headquarters. In mid-August of this year, some environmental activists and residents of the areas designated for the 'Khorasan 3' dam in the southern Zagros foothills announced their belief that the construction of this dam would submerge over '2,400 hectares' of forests and shrublands in the two provinces of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari. The Persian section of 'Voice of America' has covered the area of dam construction in Iran and the reasons behind the Islamic Republic's desire to increase these massive structures in nature in multiple reports. Dam construction in Afghanistan on the Helmand River and the reduction of Iran's share in discussions with Khosrow Bandari; the environmental disaster of the Khorasan 3 dam; the destruction of thousands of hectares of forests and biological reserves in two provinces; drought of rivers and southern wetlands in Iraq; people forced to migrate; an environmental activist: filling the Chamshir dam is illegal; a few days after officials denied it, filling the Chamshir dam began; concerns about environmental destruction and Iran's cultural heritage; filling the Chamshir dam in silence and government denial; a water issues expert: the drying of the Iranian plateau is the result of the mismanagement of rulers over the past forty years.