PROFESSOR KARIM SAEI

Karim Saei was born in 1910, in Mashhad, north eastern Iran, where he got his diploma. He left behind his homeland for Karaj city to study at the Faculty of Agriculture of Tehran University. He passed his course very successfully and received his B.Sc. degree in 1931 followed by a scholarship to study for 2 years at Agronomic Institute in Montpellier, France. He graduated M.Sc. with excellent grade. Due to his brilliance during his study in France, Revue de bois magazine published an article about him, naming him a genius. Back to back with his study in France, he was granted another scholarship to study Forest statistics at University of California, Berkeley. He received his second M.Sc. in 1937 and returned back with a treasure of knowledge to serve his country. Soon he was recruited by Directorate of Agriculture. He founded Forest Office as the first body for forest management in Iran within the Directorate of Agriculture in 1938. Very soon, he became the head of Forest Office.His attempts to found Forestry Bureau, resulted in 1940 but still he believed that forests should be attached more attention and later on Directorate of Agriculture transformed to Ministry of Agriculture in 1941 and Forestry Bureau converted to Directorate of Forestry and 4 regional forestry offices established, respectively in Guilan, Tonekabon, Mazandaran and Gorgan under the supervision of Directorate of Agriculture in 1942. In 1949, he became the chair of Forest Corporation.Saei in collaboration with his colleagues formulated the forest act and delivered it to the parliament for ratification. He also suggested to the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture of Tehran University to offer forestry, soon he started working there as the lecturer. The first estimate of forest area was also given by him in 1946.