Kushk-e Zar (Namdan) Wetland
Location: Namdan plain, Eghlid (Fars Province)
Main characteristics:
- Indigenous Qashqai Tribal Confederacy, Shish Bayli Tribe, Kuhi and other subtribes (Turkish-speaking mobile pastoralists). While the entire migration territory of Qashqai nomads is a general ICCA that fits the definition, Namdan Wetland is considered a special ICCA. The length of this wetland in rainy years is about 8-10 Km with an area of some 2,200 hectares;
- First ICCA recognized by DOE in Iran since 2005 in an official letter from the Department of the Environment to the DOE in Fars Province;
- Practicing Customary laws for the protection and sustainable use of the wetland, coupled with customary range management system in the associated rangelands around the wetland;
- Livelihoods of MIPs (mobile indigenous peoples) of the Qashqai Tribal Confederacy depends in part on this conserved wetland, including for:
- watering needs for limited agriculture;
- livestock keeping;
- handicrafts based on harvesting reeds;
- fishing;
- bee-keeping;
- medicinal plants;
- industrial plants;
- edible plants;
- and rarely, hunting;
- The wetland helps the nomadic peoples conserve valuable flora and fauna of the region;
- Governance by the Council of Elders, including their Sustainable Livelihoods Funds of Shis-Bayli Tribe as well as Kuhi Sub Tribe (registered and based on their customary tribal organisation);
- Government claims ownership based on Article 16 of the Environmental Protection Law, and the so-called nationalisation of natural resources in 1963, but IPs have customary rights over their territory reflected in a system of grazing permits based on established customary rights and demand their collective rights based on the desire to repeal the 1963 decree;
Reference: CENESTA. 2004. Char Tang-e Kushk-e Zar Wetland: a Community Conserved Area, Eqlid Township, Fars province (Zagros region). CENESTA, IIED, Council of Elders of the Kuhi sub-tribe and UNDP-GEF-SGP. Tehran.
