AMMAN — Deforestation in Jordan —
the result of illegal logging and forest fires — is on the decline thanks to
measures taken by the Ministry of Agriculture, the ministry’s
Director of Forestry Khaled Manasir said on Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
Over the past few years, the ministry has
developed forest protection instruments, and imposes tough penalties on logging
under the Agriculture Law, Manasir said. The transport of firewood among
governorates is also prohibited, Khaberni reported.
Early last year, the department’s former director
Khaled Al-Qudah said that the Agriculture Ministry had teamed up with the
Ministry of Environment to protect forests from excessive logging and forest
fires, installing 80 stations and towers to monitor
forest areas and assigning
patrols to identify and report illegal logging.
With the ministry’s measures, Manasir
noted,
deforestation activities in the Kingdom have declined.
“Jordan’s forested land is limited, and we
must preserve it,” he said.
Planting new treesDirector of Nature Preservation at the
Agriculture Ministry Bilal Qutaishat said that technology has also played a
role in
reducing deforestation in Jordan. Despite this, many of the Kingdom’s
trees died out over the past year due to the impact of climate change.
Qutaishat said that studies are underway to
identify tree varieties for afforestation, and several projects have already been
implemented to increase the Kingdom’s green cover.
Registered areas of woodland in Jordan are
estimated at 1.1 million dunums (1,100sq.km.), making up about 1 percent of the
Kingdom’s total area, concentrated in the central and northern governorates,
including Balqa, Jerash, Ajloun,
and parts of Irbid.
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