Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Land Use Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol Forest protection policy: Lesson learned from Arasbaran biosphere reserve in Northwest Iran Samira Sasanifar a , Ahmad Alijanpour a, ⁎ , Abbas Banj Shafiei a , Javad Eshaghi Rad a , Morteza Molaei b , Hossein Azadi c,d a Faculty of Natural Resources, Urmia University, Iran b Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Iran c Department of Geography, Ghent University, Belgium d ISUMADECIP, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Forest protected area Protection policy Sustainable land use Environmental protection policy Land use policy ABSTRACT Protection policy of forests is an important strategy to improve quantitative and qualitative characteristics of forest stands and their services. In addition, the concurrence of global climate change and the decline in natural resources has led scientists to focus on the sustainable development of forest land use. Unfortunately, the al- location of different uses to land has led to urbanization, industrialization, and environmental risks. Forty-five years of forest protection policy in Arasbaran Biosphere Reserve, Northwest of Iran, has created a venue to assess the effectiveness of forest conservation-based management. For this purpose, by using random systematic sampling methodology, 132 samples (66 sample plots in the protected area and 66 sample plots in the un- protected area) with a total area of 300 square meters were collected in the northern slopes. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of woody species in each plot, as well as regeneration frequency, were recorded. Topsoil samples were also collected, and some soil characteristics were measured. Biodiversity indices were calculated for tree species using the inventory collected data. Results revealed that parameters such as diameter at the breast height (DBH), basal area (BA), proportions of seed-origin stems, total height, crown’s height, and canopy area were significantly higher in the protected area (p < 0.05). In addition, the status of soil parameters in the protected area was better. In addition, tree regeneration (number per hectare) is higher in the unprotected area in comparison to the protected area. In conclusion, the forest protection policy in Arasbaran biosphere was evaluated 'successful' in terms of amending some forest characteristics indicative of the stand sustainability in forest land via reduction of and/or compensation for anthropogenic damages to the environment. 1. Introduction Different forest management policies such as protecting and con- serving natural environment have been increasingly becoming im- portant issues due to population growth and industrial development. Forests, accounting for about 30 percent of earth's land surface (Keenan et al., 2015), provide food, soil, healthy water (Kreye et al., 2014) and air, wood products, and shelter for human being and also other species. On the other hand, the concurrence of global climate change and the decline in natural resources has led scientists to focus on the sustainable development of forest land use (Steffen et al., 2004). The forest pro- tection policy process to conserve the forest ecosystem with all com- ponents followed the tactical and operational planning. Forests are being increasingly fragmented and shrunk (by changing forest land to other land uses) (Dudley et al., 2014; Keenan et al., 2015), and applying protection policies for forest conservation from unprecedented loss, both in rate and scale, to provide ecological balance and human needs is on the top of the priorities of almost all countries (Miura et al., 2015). The occurrence of natural habitats in a matrix of human dominated landscape (Collinge, 1996) further worsens the widespread modifica- tions and loss of vegetative lands, resulting in local and global en- vironmental crises such as climate change (increasing earth's albedo through desertification or soot from forest fires), poverty, and human (wildlife) conflicts (Houghton, 2005; Butchart et al., 2010). In recent decades, solutions such as wood farming to meet human needs have been gaining worldwide ground mainly for forest protection purposes (Pirard et al., 2016). This method is one of the land use al- location policies that has been able to partially save the forest. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104057 Received 14 October 2018; Received in revised form 12 June 2019; Accepted 15 June 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: a.alijanpour@urmia.ac.ir (A. Alijanpour). Land Use Policy 87 (2019) 104057 0264-8377/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T