Wood-cutting has become one of Syria’s most entrenched survival economies.
Fuel shortages turned tree-cutting from a coping strategy into an informal market linking households, traders, and armed groups. Charcoal now moves from coastal forests to inland towns, traded for food, fuel, and construction materials.
A 2023 study found that western Syria lost over one-third of its wooded area between 2018 and 2020 due to unchecked cutting and fires. In northern Aleppo, armed groups drove logging that reduced local tree cover by a whopping 60%.
Forests that once supported the well-being of the country now feed black markets, stripping land of its future.
Can Syria contain an economy that profits from destroying the only remaining natural shield?
Full analysis in our latest issue.