Mosul sowing seeds post-Islamic State
The Mosul local government in cooperation with civil society is undertaking a project to plant a million trees in Mosul.
Following years of neglect and environmental abuse, the new governor of Ninevah province, Najm al-Jabouri, announced last June, a project to plant 1 million trees in an effort to revive Mosul, a city that is also known as al-Khaḍrah, which translates to "The Green."
Subsequently, many projects were launched and some have been finalized already. For instance, on July 15, a tree planting project at Mosul’s central transportation hub was completed by a group of youth volunteers.
Mosul is known for being one of the most fertile cities in Iraq, and many scholars believe the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon were built near the city. However, many years of neglect, Turkish dams on the Tigris River and environmental damage by the Islamic State (IS) has contributed to its deforestation, turning it into a semi-arid city.
IS not only unraveled the social fabric in Mosul, but it ravaged its fertile lands and systematically burnt the Yazidi's olive tree farms and Mosul’s palm trees, causing sandstorms in Iraq. Hence, the idea to plant trees in the city was born. On June 7, Jabouri officially launched the "Green Mosul" project proposed by Mosul Eye to plant 1 million trees in the city this year.
