The Iraqi ministry of agriculture is offering the private sector the opportunity to lease plots of forestland in the country’s northern regions, as part of its forestry development program, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported. Investors would be permitted to exploit the state-owned woodlands, while being held responsible for protecting and developing them.
Nearly all of Iraq’s natural forests are located in its northeast region. It is a 20,000-square kilometer mountainous region, occupied by Kurdish tribes. The intervening valleys in the mountain ranges are mostly given up to cultivation or to grazing of sheep and goats. Villagers also pollard the oak forest for the supply of foliage, used in winter as cattle fodder.
Dominating the landscape are oak trees. The species, however, rarely grows boles long or straight enough to produce saw timber of commercial sizes. Iraq produces very little timber, so that most its local requirements, especially in constructional timber and high-grade furniture wood, have to be imported.
Generally speaking, the main value of these forests is for the fuel they can produce. Iraq’s forests have undergone heavy cutting in recent years to supply charcoal and firewood to urban markets. It is estimated that the total yield from the country’s forests annually is about 10,000 tons of charcoal and 20,000 tons of wood fuel, involving the felling of about 2,000 hectares of mature forest every year, according to FAO figures.
Secondary forest products include gallnuts, harvested in considerable quantity for leather tanning, and gum tragacanth. Both are exported. In several regions, date palm and poplar are cultivated. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
