Nournews: In the global calendar, June 5 is World Environment Day. In Iran, an entire week is dedicated to the environment. This occasion serves as a reminder of the importance of protecting nature. For Iran, however, it is more than a symbolic reminder; it is a warning about one of the country’s most complex development challenges. A challenge that can no longer be explained merely in terms of air pollution, water scarcity, soil erosion, or the drying up of wetlands. What we are facing today is, in fact, the sign of a deeper crisis: a crisis in natural resource governance.
Over past decades, the environment in Iran has largely been defined as a specialized field under the responsibility of a single executive body. The result of this approach has been that environmental issues are often placed at the end of the decision-making chain—where, after economic, industrial, infrastructure, or agricultural decisions are made, their environmental consequences are only then considered. Experience has shown that such an approach not only fails to resolve crises but often intensifies them.
The reality is that many of Iran’s current environmental challenges are not the result of resource scarcity, but of how resources are managed. A country that is currently facing severe water stress still uses consumption patterns in many regions that belong to past decades. More than 90% of the country’s water is used in agriculture, while water productivity in this sector remains significantly below global standards. At the same time, land subsidence in many plains has reached a critical stage, and air pollution imposes heavy annual costs on both the economy and the health system.
However, the strategic mistake is to treat these phenomena as separate crises. Water scarcity, air pollution, desertification, and biodiversity loss are not isolated problems; they are symptoms of a structural malfunction in the system of decision-making and resource allocation. Therefore, their solutions cannot be limited to technical projects or short-term interventions.
Recent academic research also emphasizes this point. According to these studies, factors such as contradictory policies, weak coordination among executive agencies, short-term decision-making, environmental corruption, and the lack of effective monitoring mechanisms—alongside natural and economic constraints—have contributed to the worsening of environmental crises in Iran. These findings send a clear message: the main issue is not merely an environmental crisis, but a governance crisis.
From this perspective, the country’s future strategy cannot be based solely on “crisis management.” Crisis management is meaningful when dealing with temporary events, whereas many of Iran’s environmental problems have become chronic. Chronic crises require a transformation in governance rules, not merely an increase in executive interventions.
In sustainable development literature, the response to this situation lies in the concept of “green governance.” Green governance means integrating environmental considerations as a core criterion in decision-making across all sectors. In such a model, the success of a policy is not measured only by economic indicators, but also by its impact on water, soil, air, biodiversity, and the resilience of the land.
The importance of this approach lies in the fact that the environment is no longer a sectoral issue; it has become a component of national security, public health, and economic stability. In a world where countries’ competitiveness increasingly depends on their capacity to manage resources and adapt to climate change, neglecting environmental requirements can lead to reduced competitiveness and increased vulnerability.
From this perspective, Environment Week should be an opportunity to redefine the problem. The main question is no longer how to restore a wetland or reduce a city’s air pollution; the fundamental question is how to redesign the governance system so that the production of environmental crises is halted.
The future of Iran’s environment will not be determined by the number of implemented projects, but by the quality of governance over natural resources. If development continues without environmental considerations, its costs will sooner or later return to the economy, society, and national security. But if green governance becomes a national priority, the environment can transform from a crisis-prone domain into one of Iran’s strategic advantages on the path to sustainable development.
Perhaps the most important message of World Environment Day for Iran today is precisely this: our main problem is not a lack of resources, but the way we govern them.
Nournews