‘111 forest violations registered in last third of 2016’

AMMAN — Violations on the Kingdom’s forests during the last third of 2016 dropped by more than 50 per cent, compared to the same period of 2015, officials said on Tuesday.

During the last four months of the previous year, the Agriculture Ministry registered 111 violations in forest areas, while during the same period of 2015, a total of 257 violations were recorded, according to the ministry’s spokesperson, Nimer Haddadin.

The majority of the violations were recorded in Ajloun, Jerash, Irbid, the capital and Balqa, Haddadin said.

The northern governorates witnessed the highest number of illegal logging, according to Haddadin, who noted that the country’s green cover is concentrated in the north.

During the last third of 2016, a total of 30 violations were recorded in Ajloun, 24 in Jerash, 20 in Irbid, 20 in the capital and 17 in Balqa, according to the ministry, which noted that during the same period of 2015, some 93 violations on forest areas were registered in Ajloun, 81 in Jerash, 25 in Irbid, 32 in the capital and 26 in Balqa.

“While illegal logging and violations on the country’s forest lands are recorded all-year-round, the ministry’s rangers, in cooperation with security forces, record higher violations on forest trees as winter approaches,” Haddadin told The Jordan Times.

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times on Tuesday, Minister of Agriculture Khaled Hneifat said the drop in the number of violations against the Kingdom’s forests is due to the government’s support of forest rangers by increasing the number of patrolling vehicles, fuel allocations and increasing the number of rangers.

In addition, stricter laws and regulations on protecting forests have also helped in curbing violations.

In November, the ministry issued new regulations restricting the uprooting or relocation of centennial trees.

Uprooting or relocating trees, particularly centennial ones, has always been prohibited under the Agriculture Law, but the new regulations prohibited even for the benefit of the public.

A written approval from the minister of agriculture is required in exceptional cases, officials said in previous remarks to The Jordan Times.

The northern region is particularly rich with centennial trees, such as Roman olive trees, oaks and pines, some of which are over 1,500 years old.

Centennial trees, especially Roman olive trees, are in many cases uprooted and sold for trade and landscaping purposes.

Forests in Jordan constitute less than 1 per cent of the country’s total area of 89,342 square kilometres, making the Kingdom among the poorest countries worldwide in terms of forest cover, since the internationally accepted average of land covered by forests stands at 15 per cent of the total area.

Forestry land amount to 1.5 million dunums, of which 250,000 dunums are bare, 400,000 dunums are natural forests, 500,000 dunums are planted forests and 350,000 dunums are nature reserves, according to official figures.