Once scattered and safeguarded abroad, Syria’s native seeds are taking root once more, part of an organic revival aimed at restoring the country’s agricultural heritage.
Olive yields fell across Syria this year amid the worst drought in 60 years. In southern Daraa province, the harvest was 68 percent lower than in 2024, and 86 percent lower than in 2011.
As Syria stares down drought and a changing climate, farmers and officials in agriculture-dependent Daraa province grapple with how to adapt.
After years in exile, organic farmers Bilal and Assia Abu Saleh returned home to a looted house and parched land that will be a challenge to cultivate. Yet they have a clear goal: to rebuild Syria for their children and lead it toward food sovereignty.
Massive wildfires that swept through Syria’s coastal forests in Latakia have been largely contained, but their impact—and the lessons learned—will be long-lasting.
Syria’s worst drought in decades has wiped out rain-fed crops and diminished yields across the country, devastating farmers and raising the risk of food shortages.
Syria’s environmental challenges have been sidelined—overshadowed by more than 13 years of devastating conflict and instability—but delaying climate interventions is not an option, Haid Haid writes.
People in Afrin remember the forest around Maydanki Lake for what it once was: a natural haven, the setting of summer days spent under rustling branches. Now devastated by years of illegal tree cutting by Turkish-backed factions, what hope is there for its future?
Trees have fallen under the axe in Daraa and across Syria since the spring 2011 revolution, cut for wood to sell or use as an alternative to heating and cooking gas during war, siege and economic crises. Since 2020, however, logging has increased to include fruit-bearing trees on private farmland and within cities.
Farmers in northeastern Syria are reducing the amount of land they cultivate or relying on the rain for irrigation as weak fuel subsidies and high costs make farming increasingly unprofitable.
