11/10/2022 admin No Comments

Road to Erbil 2030 Climate Action Strategy

The Kurdistan Region wants to play an active role in reducing the impact of climate change on the most sensitive sectors of the economy such as water, environment, health, and agriculture. Fighting climate change requires a comprehensive strategic plan to reduce the damage in the region and enable our area to adapt to the challenging climate situation.

Hasar is a non-profit organization established in 2019 by several researchers and entrepreneurs in our region to fight climate change. Hasar’s first significant step in creating natural forests was planting one million trees (in partnership with Rwanga Foundation and sponsored by ShaMaran Petroleum Corp). ShaMaran, a leading Canadian-listed oil and gas company with operations in the Kurdistan Region is the corporate sponsor of Hasar. ShaMaran wants to support the Kurdistan Region in fighting climate change together with Hasar.

Hasar and ShaMaran are continuing to work together to develop an initiative that will become a comprehensive strategy to combat climate change in Erbil City, Iraqi Kurdistan Region. To this end, they have created the Erbil 2030 Climate Action Strategy. On October 10, 2022, a high-level meeting was held between the delegation of Hasar Organization, ShaMaran, and the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism in the presence of Mr. Sasan Auni, Minister of Municipalities and Tourism. In the meeting, Mr. Gashbin Idris Ali, Co-Founder of Hasar Organization, presented the Erbil 2030 Strategy to Combat Climate Change in a brief presentation and submitted a strategy document. The goal of the Erbil 2030 Strategy is to create forests in the sectors allocated for afforestation within the Greenbelt. The number of trees is estimated to reach 100 million by 2030.

 

Hasar has carefully studied the significant challenges facing this initiative. Hasar’s work is focused on creating forests with indigenous trees that grow with minimal water demand and can withstand the summer season. Irrigation is to be provided primarily through recycled water. Because of its dedication to this field, several parties inside and outside the Kurdistan Region have participated in supporting Hasar to promote afforestation with local trees. This initiative will not only create a native forest but also advance the issue of climate change-adapted agriculture in our region. The Erbil 2030 Strategy works to achieve three main objectives: protect soil from desertification, promote wildlife, and create indigenous forests.

We want to thank all our members, devotees, and volunteers from everywhere in Kurdistan Region for trusting Hasar Organization. We want to thank the Ministry of Municipalities of the Kurdistan Regional Government for their positive view of the initiative. We want to thank ShaMaran for being the leading partner in this strategy and also the main sponsor of Hasar. We would also like to thanks Rwanga Foundation for being the leading partner in the planting One Million Oaks Trees Project with Hasar Organization. We thank UNICEF, our partner in the AQWA project, for producing water resources through recycled water. We thank Hama Group for their collaboration for their support in the professional visibility of the project. We thank the Cihan Bank for sponsoring Hasar in the initial phase and for current banking services. We thank DAR application for working on fundraising and awareness with Hasar Organization. We want to thank HumanBlink for consulting Hasar on the issue of irrigation. We want to thank the Parks Engineering Directorate for coordinating and supporting the project of planting One Million Oak Trees. We thank to all academic and universities that has collaboration agreement with Hasar Organization.

Top photo: an imaginary digital art photo of Erbil Greenbelt, created by DALL-E-2.
Below photo: Possible stakeholders of the Erbil 2030 Climate Action Strategy as they are currently involving in the Hasar 2025 and Million Oaks Project.