Qaleh Qafeh is a village located in the District of Minoudasht County, in Golestan Province of Iran. The significant natural attraction of this location is the Hyrcanian forests. These forests are the habitat of unique flora and fauna species such as brown bears and wolves and also the distinctive kind of Taxus Baccata trees.

Like many other villages of northern Iran, the main income of locals in Qaleh Qafeh Village comes from farming and ranching. But they stopped planting wheat in order to conserve Hyrcaninan Forests and start planting Saffron and other herbal plants instead.

Our story started in 2013 at the time of the UNDP multipurpose project for conserving Hyrcanian forests. The main purpose of this project was to avoid the destruction of forests by the local economic development of three provinces of North if Iran including Mazandaran, Gilan, and Golestan. Qaleh Qafeh Village was a part of this project and we are trying to improve the locals’ handcrafted products in a way to sell better and increase their income.

We created a group of artisans from women named “Abrisham” in 2017 who started to work on making handicrafts and traditional local puppets in provided equipped workshop. And the next year, we opened a traditional guesthouse named “Tilaq” in Qaleg Qafeh Village with the aim of developing tourism.

Aligning to the UNDP purpose, we also wanted to take a step for the conservation of Hyrcanian forests. So we donated a part of local products’ sales profit for planting new trees and paling. We also pay for feeding the locals’ livestock to avoid the destruction of newborn trees in spring.  You can support our movement in local empowerment and Hyrcanian forests conversation by purchasing wonderful handmade puppets of Qaleh Qafeh Village.