SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Illegal hunting in the Kurdistan Region is threatening the region's wildlife. Authorities are cracking down and imposing new regulations in an effort to protect the region's wild animal population.
There are an estimated 2,000 hunters in the Kurdistan Region, but only 67 have a license.
"[T]he number of wild animals and birds in these areas has decreased drastically," said Diyar Gharib, director of the Sulaimani Environment Department.
The Kurdistan Hunters Group has imposed new conditions for issuing licenses. Any hunter who wants a license, must set three partridges free. "We're doing this to preserve these animals," said Jalal Ali, supervisor of the group.
Politicians are also committing to protecting the region's wildlife and environment. "It is not just the duty of wildlife police or environmental departments and organizations, it's on all of us," said Dr. Barham Salih, second deputy secretary of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Between 2008 and 2010, the Kurdistan Regional Government introduced environmental protection laws, including related to hunting, in order to protect the region's wildlife and nature.
When the region had to focus on fighting the threat of ISIS in 2014, however, all forces were redeployed to the frontlines. This included the forest police, essentially giving illegal hunters open season, National Geographic reported earlier this month.
In the past two days, Sulaimani wildlife police have arrested 12 people on charges of hunting. Last year, 208 people were convicted on the same charges.
