In a country ravaged by war, strained by the blockade and economic problems, it hopes were wiped out by the loss of security and political turmoil. In a series of problems that have been going on for more than three decades, the citizen's problem has been to obtain a living, safety for him and his family, and the utmost ambition for officials to provide security for the people, among the accelerating events of a daily series of explosions, assassinations, kidnappings and extortion.

In the midst of these situations, no one dared to write, say, or simply think about the climate changes and their obvious effects throughout the country and the region. In Iraq, it may seem to be a fiction to talk about this subject, or perhaps the speaker will accuse of being naïve.

However, Dr. Hassan al-Janabi, who was Ambassador of Iraq to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), was very ambitious in his dreams and visions, this ambition gives rise to his sense of responsibility towards his people and his homeland, which suffers from recurrent droughts, decreasing in vegetation and desertification towards the fertile agricultural lands in Iraq, where Iraq loses 100,000 dunums of farmland annually, according to the report of the Department of Natural Sciences of the UNESCO-Iraq office.

In the second half of 2012, Dr. Hassan Janabi launched the "Green National Belt Project", which embraces Iraq from its northwestern outskirts (north of the city of Mosul), passing through western Iraq and ending in the southernmost part of Iraq (Basra city), and was planned for this project (if it was implemented) to be Iraq's first line to resist and stop the desertification at the western border of the Iraqi island, west of the Euphrates River, the length of the belt is approximately 1000 km, and covers a variety of areas of 1.5 km width depending on local conditions and geography of the region.

"The belt consists of palm trees, fruit trees and other unproductive plants that are planted with parallel lines and with specific distances, interspersed with desert herbs and other improved crops that can live in the harsh desert environment and are irrigated by the abundant groundwater in these areas, according to closed irrigation systems that secure Continuous and closed irrigation. " 

The purpose of the Green Belt project was not only to act as windbreaks to stop the movement of sand dunes but also to save Iraq from falling into the trap of desertification, drought and poverty, to lift Iraqi national agriculture out of its dire reality, to stop the environmental degradation and to protect the endangered biodiversity. Also stopping the migration of rural farmers to the city as well as promoting scientific research, developing capacities in the field of energy and environment and developing Iraq's ability to adapt to climate change, as this project will stimulate the food industry and create many jobs for unemployed youth To reduce the widespread unemployment in the country, and the project will strengthen Iraq's position on its commitments within the United Nations to combat desertification and reduce the pollution that Iraq signed at the Paris climate conference 2015.

Dr. Janabi's initiative was an integrated and workable project, which included a full explanation of the project's phases, the estimated cost, the challenges and the expected obstacles, and the ways to address them, as well as many more precise details.

Now, more than six years after the birth of this initiative, it is still just a thought that revolves around Dr. Janabi, and ink on paper still parked on the shelves of his office. At the birth of this idea Iraq was witnessing critical political unrest, after which Iraq was subjected to the onslaught of the vicious terrorist organization, in which Iraq lost almost half of its territory, as well as the sharp drop in oil prices, which is the main source of Iraq’s national income, the large and apparent deficit in state relations over these years and its dependence on international loans to fill the shortfall. Today, most of the occupied territories of the country have been liberated or are about to be freed from the grip of the terrorist organization, and there is recovery and recovery in oil prices, and Dr. Hasan Al-Janabi is close to the decision-making centre, may he do something to revive and rescue his project, which was born dead, or killed by the circumstances experienced by the country, and may come that day when the project comes out of the shelves of his office to benefit Iraq present and the future of their generations.

Sources: 

https://kitabat.com/author/196197054/page/2/

http://mowr.gov.iq/node/106