Due to the Houthi siege, desperate Yemenis are cutting down precious trees to stay alive
The National says: Amid rising prices and war difficulties for Yemenis in cities under siege by Houthi militias, wood has become their fuel of choice.
The sound of an electric saw is cutting through the fertile mountainous landscape of southern Yemen, where years of conflict and high prices have left people desperate for fuel and income.
Cutting down trees for a living
“We started logging and selling trees; Because we have no other way to make a living.”
“He and other workers towed the freshly cut wood to the back of a truck near the city, which is besieged by the Houthis but remains under government control.”
Nearly nine years of war between government forces and the Iran-backed Houthis has devastated Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.
Fuel prices rise
The newspaper explained that following the Russian invasion of Ukraine a year ago, the rise in global food and fuel prices increased suffering.
Abdel Qawi admitted that he was contributing to an environmental “disaster” but said he lacked options in a country where many could not afford fuel for heating and cooking.
“We have no choice” but to sell wood, he said, and “people have no choice but to buy it.”
Wood use
An estimated 21.6 million people, two-thirds of Yemen’s population, will need humanitarian assistance and protection services in 2023, according to the UN, the newspaper said.
“In Taiz bakery, logs and branches are cut into pieces and piled in bakeries, and smoke rises when fires erupt while staff hoists at a frantic pace,” the paper reported.
Cheaper alternative
The bakery’s owner, Abdul Salam Dabwan, complained in front of the oven about an “incredible increase” in gas costs, and said he used wood as a cheaper alternative to avoid compounding people’s suffering by raising bread prices.
“We use wood to give people what they need,” he said, urging authorities to intervene to stop inflation.
Fuel costs in government-controlled parts of Yemen peaked early last year following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It then rose again in the middle of the year before steadily declining, but still high.
Environmental disaster
Environmental expert Anwar Al-Shazly told The National: More than six million trees have been cut since the beginning of the Yemeni war, including in areas around the capital Sana’a, where wood is often used in restaurants and bakeries.
“Logging, especially in Taiz, is done at ground level, affecting groundwater, agricultural systems and biodiversity and contributing to soil erosion,” he said.
Mr. El-Shazly called on the authorities to prevent “anarchic” logging and train loggers to avoid serious damage to the environment, and warned that “a natural disaster will befall the country” if no serious steps are taken to stop these unplanned actions.
