Environmentalist group begins planting over 50,000 oak trees along Erbil’s 120 Meter Road

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A group of environmentalists in the Kurdistan Region’s province of Erbil on Friday began planting over 50,000 oak saplings along 120 Meter Road, a circular thoroughfare that surrounds much of the capital city.

The local Hasar Organization is undertaking the effort through its One Million Oak Trees Project which aims to conduct the planting across Erbil. 

“Our main objective behind the project is combating the threat of climate change,” Gashbeen Idris, the project’s supervisor, told Kurdistan 24 on Friday.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s park engineering department has allocated the planting sites for the group whose members first started the process of cleaning and preparing the land on Friday prior to dotting it with young trees.

The process will continue throughout November 2021, according to the organizer.

Idris added that his group prefers oak trees for the effort because they are “compatible with Kurdistan's environment” and help to revive the local arboreal ecosystem. They also are a hearty species, easily surviving levels of hot and dry weather that can kill other trees.

Members first grow the saplings in a nursery at Cihan University, which supports them in their green endeavor. After the initial planting, they will continue to tend to them with water and other care until the growing trees have firmly taken root.

As the dire consequences of climate change loom in the Kurdistan Region as they do across the globe, Kurdish authorities are ramping up efforts to combat the threat.

“Encouraged by the discussions at the COP26 Summit to accelerate action against a global threat,” premier Masrour Barzani recently announced, “The KRG has joined the summit to play its part in this global effort.” 

Read More: Kurdistan Region to join COP26 'to play its part in this global effort'

Over 100 leaders, accounting for more than 86 percent of the world’s forests, have committed to work together to halt and then reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 in the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use.