The crime of cutting trees under the Kurdistan Region Forest Law - Iraq No. 10 of 2012

Abstract

It is known that the crime of cutting trees and shrubs was mentioned in the Kurdistan Region-Iraq Forest Law No. 10 of 2012, considering that it is a crime specific to forest trees located within the borders of the region, which can only be achieved through the availability of their foundations. Although the legislator did not define this crime, it touched on the definition of a shrub without defining the concept of a tree. It distinguished between ordinary trees and shrubs and perennial or rare trees and shrubs, as it tightened the penalty for felling perennial or rare forest trees in accordance with Article (22) of the law. Without specifying and establishing a specific standard to distinguish perennial or rare forest trees from others, to facilitate the work of judicial authorities when they apply the relevant penal texts.

the legislator in the region stated that cutting down trees is criminalized under Article 4 as a rule, and the act is permissible after obtaining the approval of the concerned authorities.

So we can say that what was stated in paragraph (5-6/third) of Article (4), where it touched on forest trees and shrubs. Article 22 stipulates the crime of cutting or burning perennial or rare forest trees, without stipulating shrubs. Thus, we see well what the legislator did in the Kurdistan Region-Iraq Forest Law when stipulating forest trees and shrubs to expand the scope of criminal protection without limiting it to a specific category only. It occurred in a contradiction on the other hand, as it touched on trees and shrubs in some of the articles, and in Article (22) it only touched on trees, not shrubs. This means that felling of perennial or rare shrubs is not subject to the scope of criminalization, because the text came to criminalize felling of perennial or rare forest trees.