Worsening water pollution is the second major threat facing the environment.

Iran as a fast-developing nation naturally faces numerous environmental challenges, including water pollution, destruction of the ecosystem and soil erosion.
The resource-rich country has the world’s second largest gas reserves and is the fourth biggest oil producer. Hence, fossil fuels have always been the primary source of energy supply and at the same time a major environmental pollutant.
This is while the country’s efforts to acquire nuclear energy have faced serious challenges in light of the mounting international pressures, according to ISNA.
Poor sewerage and water management systems have further exacerbated underground water pollution and put the country’s diverse ecosystems as well as public health at stake.

Pollutants’ Threat
Anoushiravan Najafi, deputy head of the Department of Environment (DoE), is of the opinion that Iran’s environment faces three main threats and four challenges.
“The first threat is caused by fast-growing developmental projects that have changed the ecosystem and ecological diversity in many areas,“ he said, adding that the worsening water pollution is the second most important threat facing the environment.
“In a river like Sefidroud which is referred to as Iran’s Volga, there are some 1,840 tons of nitrates and phosphates. This river enters the Caspian Sea taking with it 15.3 tons of pesticides,“ he said, pointing out that the northern river is the country’s most pollutant watercourse in terms of pesticides.
Najafi said other northern rivers, including Astara, Chalous and Babol, are next on the list of most polluted rivers, stressing that the Caspian Sea ecosystem has been jeopardized as a result.
“The third threat is the destruction of soil ecosystems due to ever-increasing erosion.“ He warned that some 70 percent of the country’s ecosystems in the coastal areas are at risk.

Major Challenges
The DoE official is of the opinion that there are also four major challenges.
“Legal shortcomings are one of the challenges.“ The present legal structures do not help protect the environment.
He noted that inadequate research studies are another challenge facing efforts to protect the environment.
“Research accounts for a major portion of environmental protection activities.“ The performance of specialized research centers remains poor, he said.
“Lack of specialized workforce is also a serious challenge,“ he stressed, maintaining that the present administrative system and financial constraints do not facilitate hiring of specialized people.
Najafi said poor public knowledge of environmental issues and the people’s insignificant participation in such activities are other major challenges to environmental protection in the country.

Poor Performance
The official is of the opinion that a fair assessment of the performance of the country’s previous governments, particularly in relation to environmental issues, would suggest that the desertification process has expedited, rivers have become more polluted, the total area of forests and pastures has been on the constant decline and many plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction.
“Has the time not come for solving the country’s environmental problems?“ he asked.
Najafi believes that Article 50 of the Constitution, which prohibits destruction of the environment, is not implemented properly.
“How many laws have been devised on the basis of this article? How many specialized environmentalists do we have in the organization? How many of them are there nationwide? Are international environmental conventions taught at the country’s universities? Is there any supervision on export of animal and plant species from the country?“ he asked.
The deputy DoE chief said that given the growing threats and challenges facing the country’s environment and the department’s poor facilities and resources, it would be a wonder if the environment were not yet destroyed.
Biodiversity
Iran’s land area comprises 1.64 million square kms.
The average altitude is over 1200 meters. It is bordered by Turkmenistan, the Caspian (over 900 km of coastline), Azerbaijan, and Armenia in the north, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east, the Sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf in the south (1850 km of coastline), and Iraq and Turkey in the west. The country has three main climatic zones:
Arid and semi-arid regions of the interior and far south, which are characterized by long, warm and dry periods; lasting sometimes over seven months, and covering nearly 90 percent of the country. The annual precipitation rate in such regions varies between 30 and 250 mm.
Mediterranean climate (mainly in the western Zagros mountains, the high plateau of Azerbaijan, and the Alborz mountains), characterized by warm, dry summers and cool, damp winters, with annual rainfall between 250 mm and 600 mm, and covering about 5 percent of the land surface.
Humid and semi-humid regions (mainly in the Caspian, but also in west Azerbaijan and the southwest Zagros), with an annual precipitation rate of 600 mm to 2000 mm, also covering about 5 percent of the land surface.
Most of Iran is located in the Palaearctic realm and is considered the center of origin of many genetic resources of the world, including many of the original strains of commercially valuable plant species such as wheat, or medicinal and aromatic species. The southwest has some Afro-tropical features, while the southeast has some species from the Indo-Malayan sub-tropical realm.
Iranian habitats support some 8,200 species of plants (a conservative estimate), almost 1,900 of which are endemic. There are 12.4 million hectares of woodland, and some 8,900 hectares of Avicenna mangroves along the Persian Gulf coast.
Field studies confirm the presence of over 500 species of birds and 160 species of mammals.

Wetlands
The wetlands of Iran are globally significant. Large populations of migratory birds camp at these wetlands in winter or use them on their way to and from wintering areas in Africa or the Indian Sub-continent. The marshes of the south Caspian lowlands in Iran’s northwest are particularly important for over 20 species of ducks and geese while the mud flats of the Persian Gulf coast are of critical importance for shore birds, gulls and terns. A variety of marine mammals is observed in the southern waters of Iran.
At present only protected areas afford reliable protection to Iran’s biodiversity. In the unprotected areas biodiversity is diminishing rapidly; during the last 30 years 1.2 million hectares (40 percent) of Iran’s deciduous temperate forest have been destroyed. Rangelands and marginal farmlands are vulnerable to desertification, which is being exacerbated by soil erosion, over-grazing and over-exploitation of marginal farming areas. Coastal habitats and water resources are being degraded by oil, industrial and agricultural pollution and over fishing. In addition, large tracts of wetlands (called “hoor“) were devastated during the eight-year Iraqi-imposed war, and require urgent restoration.

Iranian banks are still abiding by directives dating back as far as 1962 - some of which are obsolete.

One source of bank’s financial resources is savings or current accounts. Deposits therefore need to have a specific legal definition beforehand to help the banking system resolve issues pertaining to their finances.
One of the most important tasks of banks is to constitute a system that serves as a pooling mechanism for deposits and a resourceful allocation device that channels the funds to the most productive economic activities.
So banks and financial systems are custodians or trustees of the country’s liquid reserves, playing an important role in the efficient functioning of a developing economy. As a result, any disruption in the financial system will inevitably lead to adverse impacts on the economy. There is, therefore, strong public interest in the safety and liquidity of the banking system. It is for the same reason that much attention has been given to building a strong and stable financial system in Iran.
Among factors identified behind the collapse of financial systems in certain parts of the world, one is said to be the inadequacies in the corporate governance of banks, according to Karafarin magazine.
In Iran, the bill for amending banking operations with the aim of bringing them in line with Islamic financial principles was drawn up in 1983. In this particular year, the ratified law for the banking system without usury divided deposits into different groups: Current account and savings account (traditional non-profit funds). However, despite all subsequent corrective and additional notes made to the scheme to facilitate its smooth implementation, complexity of the processes made banks ever more reluctant to abide by the new regulations. As a result the amendments were implemented only in part, inflating bribery and embezzlement, spreading usury in the production and services sectors, and finally making private industries bankrupt. So the new law didn’t give a clear picture about the legal nature of long-term savings accounts. In fact, the financial law only gave specific guidelines on how to mobilize and deal with deposits.

Old Directives
Studies reveal that Iranian banks are still abiding by directives dating back as far as 1962 - some of which are obsolete. Lack of an updating system for statistics is also causing some of the best opportunities to be lost in the economy and banking system.
Note 3 of the amendment bill states that banks act as a lawyer for account holders. But it is clear that such a complex relation cannot be explained as a simple legal relation between account holders and banks. Using the term “deposit“ for the money that is put into banks brings to mind the term “trust“ particularly because banks still consider themselves as trustees or custodians for the general public. Then again, it should be noted that the nature of such a contract is far from being just a “deposit“ and cannot be used as the proper term to explain the legal relation between banks and account holders.
Civil law refers to deposit as money in safe-keeping in the hands of the trustee, and also a commitment to return the same amount to the owner after the period mentioned in the terms of agreement.
But for bank deposits such explanations are not evident, because as mentioned earlier, account holders by depositing their money into banks allow the latter to ’own’ their money, and thus give them the right to use the deposits as they see fit, based on the economic policies of the government.

Time Value
In addition, banks are not committed to return the same value of money back to their owners. So if 1 million rials has been deposited into the bank some two years ago, the bank will now only return the same 1 million rials and not more. In other words, banks guarantee to return the principal amount without taking into consideration the time value at the time of deposit. In circumstances like this, how could it be possible to name such a legal contract as “deposit“?
For the record, the time value of money (TVM) or the discounted present value is one of the basic concepts of finance in the world. The TVM is based on the premise that a person prefers to receive a certain amount of money today, rather than the same amount in the future, all else remaining equal. As a result, he demands profit when depositing money in a bank account or making a similar investment. So money received today is more valuable than money received in the future by way of profit on the deposit.
TVM also takes into account the risk factor - both by default and inflation. Hundred monetary units today is a sure thing and its value can be enjoyed now. In five years that amount could be worthless or not beneficial to the investor. There is a residual time value for money, beyond compensation for default and inflation risk that represents simply the preference for consumption now as against later.