At 900 meters above sea level, the Green Mountain is actually a fertile plateau of lush forests in northern Libya. It is by far the wettest place in the country: one of the jewels of North Africa’s biodiversity.
one that a religious ‘fatwa’ is about to load.
A ‘fatwa’? Not only that: a ‘fatwa’ (that is, an Islamic legal opinion issued by a qualified jurist) whose content is almost entirely dedicated to crows. They told it in El PaísAhmad al Dalansi, of the Investment Authority of the National Salvation Government, made it clear “there is no religious objection to killing them.” In his view, “the prophetic tradition that classifies them as harmful (fawasiq) and dictates that they can therefore be eliminated “just like rats and snakes.”
But why would anyone want to kill crows? That is to say, it is one thing that it is not prohibited to kill them and quite another that people are willing to do so. However, the matter is more complicated than it seems: because the truth is that crows are becoming a real problem.
What is a crow like you doing in a place like this? Let’s start at the beginning: the crows (Corvus ruficollis) are not new to the Green Mountain area. However, in recent years the corvid population has not stopped growing and this seems to be causing problems in other animal populations. Especially in land turtles and a native type of short-toed eagle.
This, although it may not seem like it, is part of the problem. Because, unlike other animals, crows do not attack crops. However, they are “very intelligent creatures, who do not fear humans and are capable of adapting to various environments.” The growth of its population, like a chess game, is what is pushing an ecological imbalance that triggers (in turn) rodents and snakes.
Hence the consultation and the fatwa. It makes sense, right? If crows are a problem, the most direct question is whether they can be eliminated. AND the Al Dalansi edict maintains that culling them is not only Islamically acceptable, but that “preventing harm is a more important priority” than maintaining current populations.
The problem is that, upon seeing it, the Libyan Heritage and Wildlife Authority came out to report that such an eradication would be disastrous. Not only because crows also have a very important role in regulating the ecosystem; but, above all, because the problem is not the crows.
What is the problem? The problem is the garbage. In recent years, as explained by journalist AMR Fathallah“the crow population (…) has multiplied spectacularly in Shahat, (due to) poor waste management.” Shahat is in the heart of the mountain.
The lack of urban planning has caused housing to get out of control and that has caused “secondary landfills to proliferate in the forests, valleys and even roads of Shahat.” And there the crows feel at home.
And, of course, killing the crows won’t end the problem. Fathallah himself explains that the last time an attempt was made to eliminate the crow population, it was followed by a history-making infestation of ticks. It is reminiscent of the mass killing of Chinese sparrows that caused a famine that killed millions of people.
Ecology is too complex to be solved with fatwas (or pseudoscientific theories).
The central issue in all of this is that these are not isolated cases. As climate change accelerates, “magic” responses are becoming increasingly popular. The problem, as we see, is that this has consequences.
Image | Sasha Matic | Aldin Nasrun
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