Every year from March-September, the Ministry of Agriculture carries out operations to clear forests of brush and create firebreaks, Dildar Abdulla Mala Zada, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources within the Forests Department, told Rudaw.
The program, however, has been halted for the past five years due to a lack of financial resources. Funds haven’t been earmarked for 2019 either.
“The Ministry of Finance has not allocated any funds for firebreak lines and the clearance of forests of wild bushes as a significant number of bushes has grown in the forests this year and there is fear they will lead to the eruption of fire," Mala Zada said.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 511,100 dunams of forests in the Kurdistan Region were destroyed in preventable fires over the past four years because of the lack in budget.
An estimated 1.5 billion dinars (about $1.26 million) are needed to battle the wildfires each year, Mala Zada said.
However, last year was an all-time low for fires in the region, with 26,344 dunams burning, compared to 480,000 during the 2015 season, when forest fires peaked.
Dried out brush overgrowth becomes increasingly susceptible to fires, as it can easily be ignited in a heat wave, by artillery fire, or by human negligence, as was evident in the series of fires which spread last summer in the region.
Mala Zada also pointed to “massive size of forests, a lack of appropriate routes to the site of fires, and the existence of landmines” as contributing factors.
Landmines are still prevalent in many of the mountainous areas of the region, making access to fire sites, and fire control difficult and dangerous.
When wildfires began to spread in the Bafri Miri mountains near the Halabja region last summer, volunteers found themselves in the middle of a minefield—the mountain was laden with mines left over from the Iran-Iraq war.
According to the agriculture ministry's estimates, Sulaimani — the largest province by area in the Kurdistan Region — bore most of the brunt of wildfires in the past nine years where 496, 528 dunams of forests burned, followed by 279,000 dunams in Erbil, and 109,341, in Duhok.
"This year's rainfall in Sulaimani exceeded 1,300 mm. A massive amount of wild weeds freely grew in artificial and natural forests and there is a huge danger posed to the province's forests due to imminent wildfires” Abdulla Ahmed, head of the Sulaimani Province's Forests Department, told Rudaw.
According to Ahmed, the province formed an emergency committee as a precautionary measure, "since we cannot wait for the ministry's funds to come."
"We installed a firefighting team on top of Mount Goizha and created firebreaks in Chamchamal and Bani Maqan," he said.
Erbil tries proactive approach
In Erbil, where an electrical shortage caused this year’s first forest fire in the region, the province is allocating million dinars to implement a ‘counter wildfire campaign’. The campaign will also include areas between Erbil and Nineveh, and Erbil- Kirkuk, and will be supported by GIZ, the German development agency.
"We have purchased weed cutter machines and the GIZ organization has promised to provide workers so we can start the campaign from the beginning of the next month”, said Abdulla Hassan, head of the Forests Department of Erbil province.
Hawkar Ali, a geologist and environmental activist, advises people to also make personal efforts to prevent wildfires.
“Cigarettes should not be thrown on the ground without being extinguished. People should be wary of their children, and prevent any intentional fires they may set”, said Ali. “And vehicles should not be parked nearby bushes and areas prone to wildfires”.
The Kurdistan Region does have park rangers who are responsible for protecting nature; however, many were ordered to take up arms to support the Peshmerga during the conflict with ISIS, making it more difficult to contain wildfires swiftly and take preventative measures.
