Karbala launches green belt, million-tree project

Shafaq News- Karbala

Iraq's Abbasid Shrine launched a project on Saturday to establish a 90-kilometer green belt plant of one million trees at the Awali farm in Karbala province, as part of efforts to combat desertification, expand green spaces, and develop desert land for agricultural use.

In a statement, Secretary-General Mustafa Murtadha Deyaa al-Din, said the work is underway at the farm, which spans approximately 12,500 hectares, under directives from the shrine's legal custodian Ahmad al-Safi, with the first phase involving planting a 90-kilometer green belt at a rate of one million trees.

“Iraq possesses land suitable for agricultural investment,” al-Zain al-Din said, calling for expanded land reclamation efforts to combat desertification and for “drawing on the experience of Iraq's Shiite shrines in transforming desert areas into oases and farmland.”

The project falls within a broader push to support the agricultural sector and preserve water resources, al-Zain al-Din added. “Relevant authorities and specialists should accelerate investment in agricultural land from northern to southern Iraq.”

Earlier, the Iraq Green Observatory warned that more than half of Iraq's land is now at risk of desertification after three decades of environmental, climate, and human-driven disasters, urging authorities to “declare a climate emergency before the country's water, food, and public health security deteriorate further.”

Recent national data show that Iraq faces desertification risk across roughly 55.5% of its land area, an estimated 24.3 million hectares, while about 23.2% of the country's total land (10.2 million hectares), has already been degraded.