
Hassan Aladdin, Rwanga director (left), and Agriculture Minister Begard Talabani (right) in a meeting on March 9, 2025. Photo: Rwanga Foundation
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region’s agriculture ministry and the local NGO Rwanga Foundation launched a joint environmental initiative on Sunday aimed at restoring ecosystems, adapting to climate change, and promoting sustainability across the Region.
A statement by Rwanga noted that its director, Hassan Aladdin, and the Kurdistan Region’s Agriculture Minister, Begard Talabani, discussed ”accelerating ecosystem restoration, climate adaptation measures, and community-focused sustainability projects across the region.”
A key focus of the collaboration is Rwanga’s ongoing effort to establish a 20,000-tree olive plantation in the Kasnazan subdistrict, east of Erbil. The initiative is overseen by the organization’s founder, Idris Nechirvan Barzani.
The Kasnazan forest, developed in 1998 on 840 dunams of land (one Iraqi dunam is approximately 2,500 square meters), contains some 60,000 trees of various types, including pine. Since 2003, Rwanga has planted “18,500 drought-tolerant olive trees… rehabilitating degraded soils and fostering biodiversity in an area once plagued by ecological decline,” the statement added.
Rwanga also says that the Kasnazan plantation is part of its wider ‘Green Kurdistan’ campaign, “which has planted over 200,000 trees” in the Kurdistan Region since 2020. Future phases will involve partnerships with Salahaddin University “to monitor wildlife recovery and analyze soil regeneration in reforested areas.”
“A bilateral task force will oversee implementation and explore opportunities in eco-tourism and carbon trading schemes,” the statement elaborated.
For her part, Minister Talabani “announced upcoming policies aimed at attracting private investment in reforestation initiatives and pledged support for Rwanga’s proposed rehabilitation of drought-affected areas.”
Iraq is ranked the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, including water and food insecurity, according to the United Nations. The country continues to suffer from reduced precipitation, rising temperatures, and poor water management.
In 2024, Iraq recorded scorching temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius, alongside widespread water scarcity, desertification, and declining rainfall.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment