Trees chopped in Balisan, Erbil province. Date: December 26, 2022. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Plenty of centuries-old oak trees have been cut down in the Erbil province's Balisan valley by locals who use them for warming amid high heating oil prices as temperature degrees in the mountainous region drop below zero.
Fakhir Tutmaiy, a local resident of the village of Badinar in Balisan Valley told Rudaw’s Bakhtyar Qadir on Monday that woodcutters sell one tractor fully loaded with cut-down trees for 250,000 dinars ($160).
Tutmaiy believes that the woodcutters are licensed by local authorities and that nothing would be done to stop them from cutting down trees.
"Such old trees that may take hundreds of years to regain their shapes have been chopped down. Only the local authorities are to blame if the woodcutters have been able to do it because they are supported by the government," Tutmaiy said, claiming that "places, where the trees are
cut down, are just a few metres from the forest rangers and the buildings of the local authorities."
But Karwan Karim Khan, the mayor of Shaqlawa district where the region is within the borders of his area says otherwise, vowing that they will take serious measures and start a probe into those charged with chopping trees.
"Despite taking punishable measures against those who encroach onto the nature and the environment of Kurdistan, we have decided to investigate any shortcomings reported with respect to the violations of the law and investigate against relevant authorities who are found to be negligent," Karim Khan said.
This is not the first time that people have been arrested and held accountable for cutting trees in the Kurdistan Region.
Several people across the Kurdistan Region on a monthly basis are arrested for cutting down trees, including a man who cut down more than 1,000 oak trees in Duhok province last year.
In addition to woodcutters, green spaces in the Kurdistan Region are also severely damaged due to sporadic armed clashes and aerial bombardments of Turkey with Duhok province bearing the brunt of the natural crisis.
The Kurdistan Region's Forest Police and Environment Directorate has previously told Rudaw that more than 4,000 dunams of land and green spaces had been burned by Turkish bombardments and myriads more cut down in Duhok province since the beginning of 2021.
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