Kurdistan regional government faces several challenges, particularly preserving and improving the environment, solving its problems and harmonizing it with Iraq, regional and international requirements. The process of preparing and adopting integrated, flexible and applicable strategies with clear goals considering the available human and financial resources constitutes an urgent need for decision makers in Kurdistan and Iraqi requirement and fundamental condition. 

Environment in Kurdistan suffers from several problems which can be attributed to natural and human factors and incorrect policies that isolated Kurdistan and federal Iraq from the rest of the world for many years due to consequent wars, international sanctions and the execrable economic blockade. These factors, among others, have formed significant pressures on the environment. Therefore, rehabilitating and improving the environment quality entails multi-level collaboration of stakeholder efforts to develop environmental strategies and action plans to achieve the goals of reaching a promising future where we and future generations live safely and stably in a healthy and sustainable energy and environment.

Over the recent decades, Kurdistan has gone through several political variables and wars which negatively affected society, population and environment in KR. As a result, environment preservation and promotion and protecting resources against depletion have become a public national responsibility and assumed priority at the local and international level. This has been accompanied by the introduction of many international and regional agreements, conventions and organizations to preserve the environment and ensure sustainability. 

Environment preservation means maintaining fauna, flora, resources and ecosystems while using them and the economic resources and wealth in sustained and rationalized manner to promote population living standards and enhance environment without damaging or prejudicing the balance of ecosystems at different levels.

Reason of environmental detractions

There are several reasons that have affected the living and non-living components of the environment either directly due to direct contact, or indirectly due to internal and external factors. Types and reasons of environment deterioration can be summarized as follows:

1. Population increase (pressure)

All studies indicate that the population growth rate of KRG and federal Iraq has been steadily increasing since the 1950s, putting pressure on different environment aspects and causing increased rates of environmental deterioration and prejudiced population resources balance through the following:

a. Increased needs of food, energy, shelter and water resources

b. Growing pressure on environment due to increased liquid and solid waste

c. Population practices such as logging, deforestation, soil degradation and overhunting of wild animals and birds threaten the continuity of ecosystems.

2. Urbanisation (urban growth)

Over the last two decades, migration from rural areas to KRG’s cities have tripled due to several overlapping reasons, most importantly the increased tendency to use technological means available in urban areas, searching for better work opportunities or residence and the better health services. This has put pressure on the

elements of urban environment incapable of absorbing the population growth which depletes different resources and increases environment deterioration rates in addition to the associated consequences and damages which may not be avoidable in the future as well as the deteriorated rural areas.

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