Institutional and Organizational Requirements for Integrated Watersheds Management

The goal of watershed management is the rational and optimal utilization and management of the environmental resources in watershed scale according to the Sustainable Development Goals. In recent decades, the term "integrated watershed management strategy" has been widely advocated by many in the scientific literature.. The management of watershed resources with an integrated approach, is made possible by paying attention to watershed sub-systems and their interactions, as well as considering active processes and cycles within the watershed system. The purpose of this research is to examine the institutional and organizational requirements of the integrated watershed management through conducting comparative studies and survey on global experiences. According to the findings of this investigation, countries such as Canada, UK, Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, Sri Lanka and Australia have a distinct ministry for environment and/or natural resources a part from a ministry of agriculture. In countries like France and Iran, departments for environment and natural resources are subordinate to other ministries. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is independent from the federal government. Countries with an independent organization for natural resources and environment are more focused on watershed issues and management. In Iran, the Natural Resources and Watershed Management National Organization (NRWMNO) is subordinate to the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad. Whose main focus is to increase agricultural production? While the management of natural resources and watersheds requires a specialized, independent and dominant organizational structure, mainly focused on conservation and rehabilitation issues. Considering the contradiction in the main goals of the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad as a superordinate organization and NRWMNO as a subordinate organization, the independence of NRWMNO from the body of the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad needs to be considered and examined in depth, by gathering and analyzing the opinions of leading experts and specialists of the country.