ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — As the weather grows colder, Kurdish park rangers have ramped up efforts to prevent locals from felling trees, mainly in the Kurdistan Region's border areas, an official told Rudaw English on Thursday.
A lack of heating oil provided by the KRG is said to have sparked the crisis.
"As winter nears, we have increased our mobile teams to the countryside and forests to prevent the cutting down of trees," Hemin Kamar Khan Afandi, media officer of the Sulaimani Forests and Environment Rangers, told Rudaw on Thursday, explaining that trees are cut down for two reasons.
"First, under the guise of not receiving heating oil from the government, some people cut down trees for heating, especially in the border areas," Kamar Khan said. "The other group of people cutting trees are those who want to make and sell charcoal."
"In a raid on Wednesday we managed to arrest two people caught cutting down trees in the town of Garmk" in Penjwen, east of Sulaimani on the Iranian border, he added.
People in the remote areas of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) have limited access to national electricity. Small generators do not produce enough amperes to power heaters, which is why they turn to the more cost-efficient kerosene or wood for heating.
The KRI does have park rangers who are responsible for protecting nature. However, during the fight with the Islamic State group (ISIS) many were ordered to take up arms to defend their homeland.
In a separate raid in the same region, 12 coal kilns were destroyed, he added.
"Our teams are out all the time warning locals not to cut down trees or burn them, but unfortunately, there are still some people not heeding to our warnings and we are forced to take all measures against violators," he added.
The KRG's Ministry of Agriculture conducted a survey of green sites last year in cooperation with universities in Zakho, Salahaddin, and Garmian.
Using satellite imagery and remote sensors, they found that green areas now make up just over 12 percent of KRI territory. The province of Duhok has the highest rate of green space with just over 27 percent, followed by Halabja with 10 percent. Sulaimani and Erbil both have nine percent green space.
According to the survey seen by Rudaw, 1.3 million acres of forest have been burned in the past eight years, 57 percent of that in the past three years.
"Human beings are vastly behind wildfires in Kurdistan, unfortunately," Khan added.
According to Khan, 41 people were arrested for starting wildfires in 2019, down from 19 the previous year.
The head of the Committee of Environment and Health Affairs for the KRG warned that the government must hasten efforts to provide heating oil for people living in the border areas.
"As the environment committee of the Kurdistan Parliament, we have called upon the government to begin to provide heating oil to the people and the priority must be to the mountainous and border areas," Dr. Sabah Mahmood, head of the Environment and Health Affairs committee, told Rudaw English.
"Our people in the mountainous region are destitute. The government must provide them heating oil and not wait for Baghdad to do it. The government must not leave any space for people to cut down trees under the pretext that they not have heating oil."
"The cutting down of trees is a grave danger to the environment, particularly in Kurdistan where the level of greenery is no match of even the standard level," Mahmood warned.
Deforestation is a contributing factor to environmental degradation, added geologist Hawkar Ali.
"Losing forests will leave behind scores of negative implications, the top of which is degradation, landslides, greenhouse gases and climate change," Ali said.
The government will have to take necessary measures to prevent the cutting down of trees, including providing heating oil, he aid.
He added that the government will have to take necessary measures, including providing heating oil to locals, to prevent them from felling trees.
