Mosul high school students participate in tree-planting initiative

MOSUL, October 23 — Dozens of high school students in Mosul planted 350 tree saplings in the city’s northern forest as part of an initiative by the Muthabiroon for Goodness, Environment, and Development foundation.

The tree-planting campaign covers nine Iraqi governorates and aims to plant 50,000 trees in Mosul alone. The campaign also includes several Arab countries and will last for some 14 years.

Students planted albizia, eucalyptus, and olive trees and attached cards with messages of love and commemoration for Palestinians killed in Gaza. The choice of olive trees was intentional as they are symbolic of Palestinian lands, renowned for olive cultivation.

Faisal Zuhair, Director of Mosul’s Parks and Forest Department, said, “At the beginning of this year, the forests were cleaned, the soil was treated, the remains of fires were removed, and water was supplied through irrigation channels and networks.”

According to Zuhair, the northern forest has emply land amounting to 150 dunams, out of the forest’s 500 dunams.

“The Municipality of Mosul has planted 3,000 trees so far as part of its plan to plant 10,000 trees from its own nursery by the end of this year,” he added.

Anas Al-Taie, Director of the Mosul tree-planting campaign, explained, “We aim to raise awareness about the importance of tree-planting, and these initiatives will be launched in Arab countries through the Arab Volunteering Union.”

The initiative’s main goal, according to Al-Taie, is to increase green spaces, and reduce heat retention and pollution in cities. He said Iraq needs to plant trees across at least 25-percent of its land to achieve those goals and his group wants to turn Mosul into a “green city.”

“We have selected climate-resistant and fast-growing tree species for planting. We will plant species like neem and albizia inside the cities, and eucalyptus in the outer districts and rural areas,” he added.

Mohammed Lazim, the president of Muthabiroon for Goodness, Environment, and Development, added, “Our core work is afforestation, and today, we can only combat climate change and rising temperatures through tree-planting. The campaign will continue throughout the tree-planting season until the end of April.”