• Project Agreement
    A project on ‘Recovering the Wild: Conservation of Imperilled oak woodlands in Kurdistan, Iraq’ for two years period (2021 – 2023) has been agreed between Kurdistan Botanical Foundation, the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, Kurdistan, Iraq, and Botanic Gardens Conservation International, United Kingdom. The project is funded by the National
  • Opening FAO office ceremony in Sulaimani
    The formal office of FAO was launched by the first Iraqi lady Dr. Sarbagh Salih in Sulaimani on 15th May 2019, in the presence of FAO representatives and officers in Iraq and the local authority of Sulaimani Governorate
  • Persian Leopard Conservation Project
    Darbandikhan, one of the important study area
  • Plant Habitat Study of QaraDagh- Darbandikhan Area
    It is a part of the Creation of the Peace park project for Persian Leopard in QaraDagh, Darbandikhan and Hawraman area. This study outcome was presented in the Second International Conference of Agricultural Sciences, that held on April 5, 2018 and Published at Journal of Zankoy Sulaimani Part A. http://jzs.univsul.edu.iq/issues/special-issue/jzs-10709
  • "The Kurdistan Flora, how rich is it." Dr Ihsan Al Shehbaz
    "Dr. Ihsan Al-Shehbaz, senior scientists at the Missouri Botanical Garden and one of the founding members of the Kurdistan Botanical Foundation (KBF), visited Kurdistan Iraq for six weeks that ended on 14 July 2018. He conducted fieldwork, research, and teaching in Sulaimani, as well as gave a seminar at AUIS
  • Dr Ihsan El-Shehbaz
    A presentation by Dr. Ihsan about "Kurdistan's Rich Flora" At AUIS on Monday, July 2nd, 2018 at 11 AM
  • Birds of QaraDagh
    Birds of Qara Dagh field guide is now published! this guide is a product of three years fieldwork survey as a part of the project of Kurdistan Botanical Foundation(KBF) in QaraDagh area. This field guide comprises 183 bird species with their Photos, English/ Kurdish names, descriptions, habitats and conservation status
  • Plants of QaraDagh Mt.
    A field Guide for the Plants of QaraDagh will be produced in a near future. it is under the progress.
  • Summer Training 2017
    A group of students from Sulaimani University, Faculty of Field Crops had their summer training at KBF
  • Summer Training 2017
    A group of students from Halabja Polytechnic University, Field crop departments had their summer training at KBF.

Welcome letter

Dear members, friends and colleagues,

 Welcome to our website, and thank you for your interest in the Kurdistan Botanical Foundation (“KBF”). Although we have faced challenges due to events in the Middle East over the past few years, the Foundation has remained active and continued to grow.

 In my last letter, I wrote about my concerns for the Kurdistan Region and Iraq as a whole, resulting from the extraordinary political, economic, and security challenges facing the country and neighboring Syria. Iraqi Kurdistan is no exception; it has been hit hard economically and by the war against ISIS. So many lives have been lost on many fronts during this conflict.

 KBF has also been affected by the crisis of the region. We added one more research project in 2016, to survey Qaiwan mountain, approximately 15 km away from the city of Sulaimani. During eleven field trips to the mountain from March to October 2016 thousands of specimens were collected from 30 waypoints in different locations. The study will take two years to complete, followed by the publication of a field guide of the various plants. While generous investors from Sulaimani funded the initial stages of the project, unfortunately their support ended 2017, and the project is on hold for now.

 During the QaraDagh mountain project, which lasted for three years, 2015-2017, approximately 8200 specimens were collected from 200 waypoints on 65 field trips to different locations. In order to avoid repetition and confusion during data collection and identification process, each species collected was given a unique number of a continuous series. We expect dozens of new species to science, and many new species to Iraq to be among the collections.

 KBF has also produced a field guide for the Azmar-Goizha mountain. (The guide can be found on KBF’s website.) This included 112 species with scientific and local names as well as botanical descriptions and photographs. KBF was the first institution to conduct a full study of Azmar-Goizha mountain in 2014-2015. Seven species new to science and ten species new to flora of Iraq were discovered during the project, and the findings were published in international journals. More than 660 species were collected and the specimens are mounted and preserved at the Kurdistan Botanical Foundation Herbarium (KBFH) for those interested in studying them further. It is worth mentioning that a study of Azmar-Goizha mountain conducted more than 30 years ago concluded that there were only 59 species in the mountain. This demonstrates the importance of conducting annual, comprehensive studies and surveys of all locations in various sites that ensure the proper recording of new species.

Thank you again for visiting our website, and a special thanks to our members who support our vision and goal.

Sincerely,

Sarbagh Salih, PhD
President of KBF