Two sentenced and fined for illegal tree chopping in Ajloun forest

AMMAN — Two persons were fined and sentenced to prison on Wednesday for chopping down trees in Ajloun Governorate in August, government officials said on Thursday.

Ajloun Reconciliation Court sentenced the two individuals to six months in prison for violations on Ajloun’s forests, Minister of Agriculture Khaled Hneifat said in a statement to the press, indicating that one of them was fined JD6,200 and the other JD1,000.

After the ministry’s forest rangers caught the two cutting down trees over the summer, the case was referred to court, Hneifat said in the statement.

The minister praised the judicial authorities for cooperating with the ministry in accelerating procedures and court sessions concerning violations on the country’s forests, indicating that authorities’ cooperation is key in putting an end to illegal logging.

Meanwhile, ministry’s spokesperson Nimer Haddadin indicated that the illegal loggers were caught while chopping down centennial oak trees for trade purposes.

“The court ruling, especially in this accelerated approach, is a milestone in the country’s fight against illegal logging,” Haddadin said, noting that the court ruling was issued on Wednesday.

Forests in Jordan constitute less than 1 per cent of the country’s total area of 89,342 square kilometres, making the Kingdom among the poorest countries worldwide in terms of forest cover. The internationally accepted average of land covered by forests is 15 per cent of a country’s total area.

Forestry land amounts 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 dunums are nature reserves, according to official figures.

Official figures show that violations on forests are dropping, with 453 cases recorded in 2015 and 230 recorded in 2016, according to ministry’s figures, which indicate that so far, 50 cases of forest violations have been recorded since the start of this year.