Issue No. 610
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31 Oct. - 6 Nov. 2002 Issue No. 610 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Natural protection
Egypt is working with other countries to safeguard its natural resources. Mahmoud Bakr reports
The International Conference on Protected Areas and Sustainable Development held in Sharm El-Sheikh last week aimed to foster a conservationary ethos and provide a forum in which states could address shared concerns about the environment. The event, which is to be held every second year, drew 600 environment experts, including more than 30 environment ministers, from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Arab world as well as representatives of international organisations.
Egypt has a considerable stake in strengthening the international regime for the management and safeguarding of protected areas, with some nine per cent of the country's territory comprising protectorates. Among these areas are the Siwa Oasis and the White Desert. Consequently, Egypt was among the countries calling on states that have not ratified the international protocol on biodiversity to do so.
One of Egypt's major concerns, which Minister of State for the Environment Mahmoud Riad highlighted, is the future of the country's coral reefs. The corals indigenous to Egypt, Riad said, should be classified and catalogued. To ensure that future generations might enjoy the coral, measures should be adopted to reduce coral reefs' exposure to divers.
In a related topic, participants cautioned against the negative impact of tourism on protected areas, and called for the formulation of strategies for the development of "environmental tourism" that take the concerns of local residents into account. Such strategies might include the development of environmental industries and crafts in protected areas and support for private initiatives in environmental tourism with the aim of encouraging the construction of environment-friendly resort areas.
One of the concrete outcomes of the meeting was the singing of a cooperation agreement between the Egyptian and Italian environment ministers to implement four joint projects. Two dimensions of these projects are the construction of generating stations powered by wind and the adoption of integrated management for water resources.
The environment ministers of Yemen, Jordan, Sudan and Libya signed four memoranda of understanding that affirm a commitment for technical cooperation and the sharing of expertise on environmental information systems, the management of wastes and hazardous materials and the use of treated sewage water in forestry projects. Targeting the political level, the memoranda stipulate coordination of positions in international fora, information sharing on environment policies in the areas of promoting biodiversity, combating desertification, constructing industrial parks and managing coastal areas.
Prince Fahd Abdallah Al-Saoud, the head of the executive bureau of the Arab Council of Ministers of the Environment, reviewed parts of the Arab Plan of Action for the Environment that are to be implemented next year. Under the plan, the 10th Conference for Arab Businessmen and Investors is to be convoked to study the impact of the service sector on the environment, to coordinate Arab positions regarding measures to ensure that goods comply with the World Trade Organisation's regulations on the environment and to formulate strategies to combat desertification in Arab countries.
Alongside the conference, the sixth annual meeting of the board of the Regional Authority for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden was held. The meeting agreed to establish in Hurghada the first regional centre for addressing the risks of pollution by oil spills and chemical substances. Riad affirmed Egypt's readiness to provide all the facilities necessary for the establishment of the centre. In a related matter, he mentioned that Egypt is already constructing in Sharm El- Sheikh the Egyptian Centre for the Protection of the Marine Environment.
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