Special court to examine cases of violations against forests

AMMAN — The Ministry of Agriculture on Sunday commended the decision of the Court of Cassation to establish a special court for forest violation cases.

Judicial Council President Hisham Tal, who also heads the Court of Cassation, has tasked the presidents of the courts of First Instance with naming judges to preside over cases of forest violations and any other cases that are related to the Agriculture Law, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Nimer Haddadin, spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture, said the decision shows that attention is being given to violations of bare forest lands in Jordan. 

“There is a great need for cooperation among the concerned parties, including the judicial authority, on this issue,” he told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

Haddadin noted that measures are under way to stiffen the penalties against violators. 

“The penalties will include jail time and fines,” he added. 

The Agriculture Ministry recently announced a new policy to end violations on bare forest land.

Under the new policy, the agriculture and interior ministries will enhance monitoring and handling of violations on uncultivated forest land, while the former will draft new regulations that ban issuing commuted sentences to those who commit such infringements, Agriculture Minister Akef Zu’bi said at a recent press conference.

Zu’bi explained that forest lands include terrain covered with forest trees and uncultivated land intended for greening projects, underscoring that the government is cracking down on violations on the latter.

A total of 12,000 violations have been recorded on bare forestry lands, the minister said, highlighting that 7,000-8,000 breaches occurred during the past 25 years.

Forestry lands 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 are nature reserves, Forestry Department Director Eid Zu’bi recently told The Jordan Times.

Forests in Jordan constitute less than 1 per cent of the country’s total area of 97,000 square kilometres.

Ministry figures indicate that 1,399 violations in the country’s forests were registered in 2014, and 800 cases are still in court.

The Jordan Environment Society in Ajloun on Sunday warned against the dangers of the shrinking green cover in the northern governorate due to illegal logging and arson, Petra reported.

The society said acts of arson, during the past few days destroyed more than 200 endangered trees, which necessitates intervention from stakeholders to draw up plans that can put an end to such practices.

Ajloun Governorate contains 140,000 dunums of forests that cover 34 per cent of its total area.