Recovering the wild: Conservation of imperiled oak woodlands in Kurdistan, Iraq

Project: Completed 2023

Funded by: National Geographic Society

Project Partner(s): Kurdistan Botanical Foundation and the American University of Iraq

Over the last three years, funded by the National Geographic Society, BGCI collaborated with Kurdistan Botanical Foundation and the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, to implement integrated conservation action for locally threatened oak species and habitats.

Project Goals

Oak woodlands are the main forest type in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and comprise as many as five distinct oak tree species including the locally rare Quercus macranthera. These habitats and their species are at the heart of manifold services and products vital for regulating natural processes and supporting the livelihoods of local communities in the region, but are under immense pressure from indiscriminate cutting, fire, overgrazing, agriculture, construction and global warming. To address these threats effectively through an integrated approach, this initiative has advanced knowledge of the distribution of remaining populations and propagation techniques of the project target species, and boosted practical conservation through reinforcement planting in the wild and development of nursery supplies with seedlings for future planting efforts. The project also enthused different groups of Kurdish society through technical training and public outreach activities to engage in local biodiversity conservation.

Key Achievements

Albeit operating under very challenging conditions such as resulting from the restrictions posed by the Covid-19 pandemic but also political conflicts in the border regions, and bombardments in areas near the project sites as well as minefields, the commitment and determination of the project partners enabled the successful implementation and completion of the project. This included the collection of some 35,000 acorns of native target species such as Quercus aegilops, Q. infectoria and Q. libani, the generation of some 12,000 seedlings in local nurseries and in situ population reinforcement planting thereof in mountainous locations in Choman and Soran districts of Erbil governorate as well as on Hawraman mountain of Halabja governorate. Thanks to the support provided by this project, Kurdistan Botanical Foundation is now also able to monitor conservation and regeneration of Q. macranthera, one of Iraq’s rarest and most threatened tree species with some 40 known mature individuals remaining in the wild. This will enable the collection of propagules in the future to consolidate integrated ex and in situ conservation efforts.

The project’s capacity building and outreach efforts through development of best-practice propagation protocols and planting campaigns using native oak species, have also contributed to changing horticultural practices in urban areas, and are increasing the profile of the benefits of native tree species over exotic ones in cities.