Environment and forest guards are individuals who are at the forefront of defending the environment. Environment guards, employed by the Environmental Protection Organization, are responsible for protecting and controlling the natural areas and wildlife of the country, while forest guards are part of the forces under the authority of the Forests, Rangelands, and Watershed Management Organization of Iran. Environment guards are considered government employees according to employment laws, but due to their work conditions, they have a similar status to law enforcement or paramilitary forces.

Less than three thousand environmentalists (the official number being 2,700) are responsible for protecting the environment of Iran, while according to international standards, there should be one environmentalist for every 2,000 hectares of dry land and one for every 1,000 hectares of wetland. This means that Iran needs a total of 11,000 environmentalists, given its geography.

These individuals hold a high position in the administrative pyramid of their affiliated organizations, and many of them have chosen this profession solely due to their interest in forests and wildlife. They live and work far from their homes and families, with very limited facilities and equipment.

Environment guards, due to living in the habitat of animals, are familiar enough with their behavior; therefore, the greatest dangers that threaten them are not from animals, but from humans. According to Shahram Amiri Sharifi, the head of the Animal Rights Watch Association, since the establishment of the Environmental Protection Organization and according to statistics, 116 environment guards have been killed by hunters or those who have hunting guns.

The estimated number of people who have become disabled or injured in these conflicts is also about four times this figure.

Masoumeh Ebtikar, the head of the Environmental Protection Organization, announces this figure slightly lower and says, “In the past three decades, 113 environmental guards have been killed by invaders to the country’s natural resources, and in the past eight years, 7 environmental guards have also been killed in prison due to shooting by hunters.”

The number of prison guards, as Ms. Ebtakar says, is contradictory. Hamidreza Khildar, commander of the urban environmental protection unit in September 2013, told Mehr that there are 11 prison guards. This is while one of the guards is sentenced to death in Bam National Park, named…

“Ali Jamishi”

In July 2013, with the consent of the deceased’s family, he was saved from death.

Apart from “Asad Taghizadeh” and “Gholam Hossein Khalidi”, two of the rangers of the protected area of Dena who have been accused of murder by illegal hunters and their death sentences have been confirmed, the names and identities of other imprisoned rangers are not available in the media and it is unclear what fate awaits them.

Gholam Hossein Khaledi, a condemned environmentalist, has asked in a letter from Yasuj Central Prison to Masoumeh Ebtakar, to do something so that his youth does not perish in prison or under the axe. In this open letter to Ebtakar and her colleagues, he has wished for their success and the salvation of Iran’s environment from behind the bars of Yasuj Central Prison.

Environmental protectors are often sentenced to execution by the judiciary due to the lack of protective laws. According to Article 32 of the Executive Regulations of the Environmental Protection and Rehabilitation Law, “environmental guards are equipped with suitable weapons, the type of which is determined with the consent of the Ministry of Defense.” Article 33 of the same regulations states: “The organization is responsible for providing necessary training courses for officers who are required to perform duties in environmental protection.”

Despite all this, the judges of these cases say: “Environmental guards are not law enforcement officers and because they are not officers, they cannot use weapons.”

Contradiction in the law regarding the arming of environment protectors and the reason for issuing such orders – aside from the inhumanity of issuing and carrying out death sentences – is an ambiguous and questionable issue.

In such conditions, many environmental activists are opposed to the armed presence of environmental guards if they are not immune to dealing with offenders.

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