Arasbaran Protected is the 9th Biosphere Reserved in Iran (East Azerbaijan Province) which covers an area of 78560 hectares with a circumference of 134 km. The altitude varies from ca. 256 m in the northern part to 2896 m which is the highest elevation in southern part of the area.
Due to the importance of the area in having a rich flora (about 1000 taxa) and fauna specially presence of rare species such as Lyurus mlokosiewiczi in 1971 was conserved and UNESCO was listed it as a wildlife refuge since 1976.
