Nowshahr Botanical Garden is the second largest botanical garden in Iran which now houses over 800 species of plants and flowers, some of which are internationally rare.  This garden which has always been compared to the Florence Botanical Garden and the London’s Kew Garden has also been the focus of much attention by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), in addition to being registered a national natural heritage site in Iran. The experts believe that this Botanical Garden is in danger of destruction which started initially about 10 years ago.  One of the governmental organizations in Iran decided to build a road right through the garden at that time because of the lower cost of construction. This road runs through the garden for 1500 meters while the experts believe that they could have built the road differently and therefore not affect the garden.  Because of the resistance of the supporters of the garden, the construction of the road stopped for a few years.  However, three weeks ago, they started working on the road again which will no doubt have major impact on the garden.  There has so far been no response issued to all the oppositions to building this road.