No shade left after years of conflict

A boy leading a donkey carrying wood from trees cut at the Mount Abdulaziz nature reserve — AFP

ON a riverbank in war-ravaged Syria’s north, felling has reduced what was once a lush forest to dispersed trees and decimated trunks poking out from dry, crumbly soil.

Twelve years of conflict that led to a spike in illegal logging, along with the effects of climate change and other factors, have eroded Syria’s greenery.