Arasbaran Biosphere Reserve  is  located  in  the northwest of  Iran at  the borderline the republics Azerbaijan and Armenia, approximately 90 km north-east of Tabriz. It covers an area of about 164 000 hectares, and has a variety of natural features such as high mountains, deep valleys, steep slopes, dense forests and vast rangeland.

    The Arasbaran area  is under  influence of  three different climatic zones:  the southern part  is cold and semi-arid (Irano-Turanian region),  the central high mountains (Saigiram  daq)  and  the  eastern  part  are  humid  or  sub-humid  and  relatively warm [subtropical  climate  of  the  southwest  of  the  Caspian  Sea  (Talish  region)  and Hyrcanian belt], and the western and northern parts are relatively cold and  sub-humid,  affected by  the Caucasus  region  and  the Black Sea  (Mediterranean climate).

     This climatic variation results  in a  large diversity of plant species and ecosystems. Approximately  1000  plant  species  are  found  in  the  region,  among  them  140  are woody  plants.  The  main  plant  species  include  Quercus  macranthera, Juniperus communis, Pistacia  atlantica,  Carpinus  betulus, Fraxinus  rotundifolia, and Acer campestre.  It  reaches  from semi-arid steppic  foothills at ca. 1500 m  in  the south  to alpine areas in the central mountains up to ca. 2800 m, and down into the valley of the Aras River (in  the Caspian drainage basin) at ca. 700 m  in  the north. Moisture-laden winds from the Caspian Sea support a rather isolated patch of deciduous forest up to c.  2000 m,  an  outlier  of  extensive  forests  further  north,  and  lush  alpine meadows above  the  tree-line.  Access  to  the  Reserve  has  remained  difficult  because  of  the absence  of  all-weather  roads.  Large  areas  of  forest  have  been  cleared  for  the cultivation of cereals and vegetables and  for orchards and pastureland, and much of the  remaining  forest has been degraded by grazing  and  cutting of  fuel wood. Land ownership is public.

     Arasbaran  rock  units  include  volcanic  and  sedimentary  rocks  of  Eocene  epochintruded  by microgranodiorite  and  biotite-hornblende  granite  of Oligocene  epoch. These  rocks  are  altered  by  hydrothermal  kaolinization,  aluminitization  and silicification. Also,  granitic  to  granodioritic  rocks  intrude  into  the  cretaceous marl, sandstone and limestone. See Sohrabi &Alstrup (2007)