Last chance for the Persian leopard: the fight to save Iraqi Kurdistan’s forests

Minefields left over from the Iran-Iraq war are one of the last bastions against illegal logging and poaching

In the spring, the Pirmagrun mountain, one of the world's last refuges for the endangered Persian leopard, towers over the surrounding countryside in Iraqi Kurdistan, its rocky snow-capped peaks fading into an ancient oak forest that starts out sparsely before running into narrow, densely-wooded valleys.

As recently as the 1980s, the forest covered the slopes of the mountain - also known as Birah Magrun - as well as the surrounding area, and the leopard was commonly seen by hunters. But intensive illegal logging means the forest now ends abruptly halfway down the mountainside, where it runs into a barren land studded by tree stumps and grazed by herds of goats.