ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Officials and residents in Garmiyan have undertaken strong measures to protect the administration’s native deer population, including the enforcement of fines for poaching and the construction of wells to provide drinking water. Qoratu’s arid and open terrain in Garmiyan, which is under the administration of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is home to an estimated 1,000 deer. Protected from poaching, they are mostly categorized as Iraqi “rimi.” The deer often approach populated areas. The head of the Kirkuk-Garmiyan Appellate Court recently visited Qoratu to follow up on protection efforts. "If a ranked military official or any other military personnel, including members of interior security, are caught hunting they will be punished double compared to civilians,” Judge Awat Hajji told Rudaw on Wednesday. “They will receive a more severe punishment.” According to data from Garmiyan’s police directorate for forests and the environment, 39 people have been apprehended so far in 2024 on charges of poaching. Komar Khalil is a resident of Qoratu town's outlying village of Markaz Sheikh. Because of the deer population, he has voluntarily dug and built two wells costing up to $20,000 to provide water for the deer year-round. Khalil said in their village alone there are 200 to 250 deer. "These deer drink water from these wells,” he added. “The number of hunters has significantly dropped in our area due to our presence and the forest police. We are watching over them." From 2008 to 2010, the KRG introduced environmental protection laws including some related to hunting in order to protect the region's wildlife and nature. Parts of the Garmiyan region or bloc spanning across northern Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have long been disputed between the KRG and the Iraqi federal government. The Sulaimani Forest and Environment Police have said strict fines will be levied on any hunters killing or poaching wild animals, including native lions and tigers. The fines range from 100,000 Iraqi dinars to 10 million Iraqi dinars (around $85 to $8,000), according to Kurdistan Environment Board’s Protection and Improvement regulations. Additionally, poaching tigers, brown bears, black bears, deer, wild sheep, and goats will result in 10 million dinars. The fines can increase if the poached, hunted, or trapped wild animals are endangered in the Kurdistan Region.
