(Zaman Al Wasl)- A well-known forest lies on the northern bank of Euphrates lake in Raqqa province has been exposed to haphazard timber cutting and neglect for years which resulted in the emergence of empty patches and patches of dry trees.
The former employee at the Directorate of Raqqa Agriculture, Hasan A revealed that most of the operations of stripping large areas of forest west of the city of Raqqa took place during the last battle against Islamic State, pointing out to the exposure of the forest to random timber cutting amid neglect of the forest by the Syrian Democratic Forces militias which control the region.
Hasan told Zaman al-Wasl that the cutting of trees and sale of wood has become a profitable trade. A ton of wood is sold for 35000 SP. (SDF) militia has overlooked the trade which encouraged the cutting of trees. He indicated that these forces have recently begun patrols to prevent timber cutting.
The forest is located on the northern bank of the Euphrates River Lake extending from the south of al-Suwayda Saghira village to Ja'aber along the length of the lake to the west and at a width of about 2 km. The forest consists of trees of pine and eucalyptus trees, including 2,000 pistachios and 10,000 olive trees. The forest is about 25 years old, according to the employee.
Hundreds of employees, agricultural workers, guards and technicians worked for the project but stopped working for the forest following different battles between regime and Free Syrian Army and recently exit of Islamic State. The neglect of the forest led to vandalism of the agriculture equipment, generators and resulted in the drought of olive and pistachio fields.
The total area of forests in al-Raqqa province is 17327 hectares, of which 14713 hectares are artificial forests distributed over 30 sites and 2,614 hectares of natural forest in Euphrates and 1655 hectares planted with fruit trees.
Eqrsad
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