Shafaq News- Erbil

Rising fuel prices and unreliable electricity supplies are increasing the risk of renewed tree cutting in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region as autumn and winter approach, the Aynda Organization for Environmental Protection warned on Tuesday.

Aynda President Marouf Majid told Shafaq News that reports from forest and environmental police indicated that residents had begun cutting trees in several mountainous areas over the past two months.

He called the trend a serious threat to the region’s forests, which have already lost large areas of vegetation in recent years due to fires, drought, climate change and other factors.

The price of a 200-liter barrel of heating oil has risen from about 250,000 dinars ($191) to nearly 300,000 dinars ($229), placing additional pressure on residents of mountainous areas ahead of winter, Majid noted.

The organization has repeatedly urged the Kurdistan Regional Government and its Ministry of Natural Resources to provide mountainous communities with sufficient fuel at affordable prices before winter. Such measures, Majid stressed, could help prevent residents from turning to trees for heating.

“Households in mountainous areas need about 10 barrels of oil, each holding 200 liters, during autumn, winter and part of spring for heating,” he said, adding that other areas of the region require more than three barrels, due to changing weather patterns and lower temperatures.

Climate change, drought, fires, tree cutting and encroachment on forests and land have all contributed to the degradation of Kurdistan’s natural environment, Majid noted.

Read more: Aynda warns of worsening Iraq, KRI air pollution

Many countries have adopted measures to address the effects of climate change, he added, while local responses have yet to match the environmental risks facing the region.

Aynda’s statistics show that more than one million dunams* of forests and rangelands in the Kurdistan Region were burned between 2010 and 2021.

Forests have also been affected by tree cutting, fires, land clearing and the construction of buildings, roads and other projects, damaging large areas of vegetation and natural habitats, Majid noted.

Majid urged the Ministry of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection and Improvement Board, government agencies and relevant organizations to develop a joint plan to protect natural resources and provide mountainous communities with fuel at affordable prices rather than commercial rates.

If current conditions persist, he warned, large areas of Kurdistan’s forests could disappear in the coming years, returning the region to conditions seen in the 1990s, when residents relied on trees for heating.

*1 Dunam = 2,500 square meters