8,000 oak trees to be planted in Barzan
Members of the environmental protection forces and locals similarly took part in the planting campaign.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Region’s environmental proception forces in Erbil’s Barzan area on Saturday announced a new campaign to plant 8,000 oak trees to honor thousands of Barzanis who were massacred by the former Iraqi dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein.
The oak trees will be planted over the coming days near the Barzanis’ Anfal Monument, which memorializes the 8,000 members of the Barzanis who were killed en masse by the former Iraqi regime in an ethnic-cleansing campaign known as Anfal, an Arabic word for “the spoils of war”.
Oak trees abound in the Kurdistan Region’s mountainous areas, as the trees are resilient to extreme hot and cold temperatures in the area.
Although the commemoration of Barzanis’ Anfal genocide is marked annually on July 31, the campaign took place in December, as it is the planting season for trees, Hassan Dolamari, the commander of Mergasor environmental protection forces, told Kurdistan 24.
Members of the environmental protection forces and locals similarly took part in the planting campaign.
Several oak tree planting campaigns have taken place in the Kurdistan Region over the past years in a bid to tackle the adverse effects of climate change.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has made “reforestation” one of the top priorities of the ninth cabinet’s climate action plan, a senior foreign policy and climate advisor to Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in late November.
Additional reporting by Kurdistan24 Soran Reporter Tayfur Mohammed