Over the past decade, a drastic increase in the number of wildfires has jeopardized the livelihood of nearly one million Tunisians. All of the forests spanning the governorate of Bizerte in the north-most tip of the country, to the governorates of Beja and Kef in the northwest, to still others in the center and northeast—overall more than a third of the country’s total surface area—are impacted by the fires.
For years now, daily life on the island of Djerba has been punctuated by water cuts. In response to global warming and water stress, the Association Jlij for the Marine Environment has invested in the restoration of fsegui, public water cisterns dating from the colonial era.
Who has not heard a friend or family member express the desire to drop everything, move to the mountains and grow everything one needs in one’s own garden? A community in Homrane, tucked away in the forest of Ain Drahem, has turned this dream into a reality. And the work that this small group has accomplished in three years is tremendous.
El Faouar, Kebili governorate: the lack of water, encroaching sand, plummeting revenues from date palm production, and inability to invest in lands in order to make them arable have put much of the local population in an impossible situation. With little or no hope left for the future, many locals are leaving El Faouar in search of new horizons.
Rising fuel prices, a failing public transportation system, air pollution… More and more Tunisians are turning towards the two-wheel solution: bicycling.
As water levels in Tunisia’s dams have fallen, the country itself has fallen below the water poverty line. Water levels in the country’s dams are at a record low in comparison with previous years, at 28.5% of reserve capacity, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Financial Resources. This drop has had a direct impact on agricultural activities and contributed to soaring prices, while also causing interruptions in the supply of water used for irrigation and human consumption.
The government has ignored all the warning signs. Now, rising water levels are threatening to submerge the archipelago of Kerkennah. Report.
« It’s a sign of the Ministry’s shortcoming. The minister travels around with her staff and meets with governors, but doesn’t include the communes. The result? A handful of individuals cleaning up plastic » quips the president of the National Federation of Tunisian Communes (FNCT). « The initiative aims to instill a culture of environmentalism. A clean environment is a daily effort and lifelong commitment » retorts a ministry official.
Stretching across a distance of 1,300 kilometers, the Tunisian coastline is one of the country’s most treasured riches. And pollution threatens to destroy it. Every year, the Ministry of Health publishes a list of beaches where swimming is prohibited. The most obvious culprit is the National Sanitation Utility (ONAS). Water analyses indicate the presence of significant levels of fecal matter in the sea. But the government’s laissez-faire policies offer no incentive for industrial facilities to limit the pollutants they release into the environment.
For the past five years Abderrazzak Sibri hasn’t harvested a single olive from the 357 olive trees on his land in Sidi Mahmoud, a rural town in the province of Kairouan (central Tunisia). Sibri had planned to plant more olive trees, but lack of rain, several years of draughts and decreased ground water levels impacted production and changed his plans. “What bothers me most is that I have been investing in these trees,” he says. “When they finally reach the age in which they can produce regularly and abundantly, there is no more water to keep them growing.”
Farmers have been ruined, lands abandoned. Agricultural zones that were still flourishing just five years ago have since dried up. Water scarcity caused by climate change and rising temperatures has a direct impact to bear on Tunisia’s food security—far more than the conflict in Ukraine. Report.
Local initiatives, legal action, petitions; in the face of pressing environmental issues and negligent public authorities, more and more civil society actors are mobilizing.
One of the largest environmental protests Tunis has ever seen occurred on Sunday, September 12 when thousands of residents of the southern coastal suburbs formed separate human chains on their beaches in the neighborhoods of Ezzahra, Hammam Lif, Rades, Hammam Chatt and BorjCedria. They demonstrated against the daily sewage flow in their beaches where thousands swim every summer.
Ariana, the « city of roses » once known for its greenery and gardens from the Hafsid dynasty, is not what it used to be. Since the Urban Development Plan (PAU) was revised and agricultural map updated, the green spaces at the outskirts of park Ennahli have diminished considerably, exacerbating the risk of flooding. And real estate developers are profiting.
Located in the south of Tataouine, the Nawara oil field was inaugurated by former prime minister Youssef Chahed on February 5. According to Chahed, the field was alloted a 3.5 billion dinar budget and promises a production of 2.7 million m3 of gas, 7,000 barrels of petroleum and 3,200 barrels of liquefied petroleum gas per day. This is enough to reduce Tunisia’s energy deficit, an estimated 435.5 million dinars, or 44.9% of the 20% commercial deficit. And yet this project that Chahed described as « historic » flies in the face of the country’s international commitments.
Beginning in October, farmers in Tunisia’s northwest, particularly Beja, Jendouba, Zaghouan, will begin planting cereal crops like wheat and barley and leguminous crops including chickpea, lentil and faba which will both feed soil and stock pantries. A select few farmers in the region will also plant canola, an industrial oilseed supplied by French agribusiness giant Groupe AVRIL who is partnering with the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture to develop a canola sector that is « 100% Tunisian ». The project is in fact part of a decades-long push to introduce canola as a « locally grown » alternative to imported grains and oils.
In January 2018, the Lebanese Hunting Club posted a series of photographs displaying hunters smiling behind their spoils, hundreds of birds downed during a trip to Tunisia. The images suscitated a wave of outrage by conservation groups not only for the way that the group advertised their copious kill, but for the fact that hunting of this scale is permitted under current legislation. On paper, regulations in the sector were designed to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems. To what extent do today’s hunting practices, quotas and implementation live up to this role?
On December 1, Tunisians celebrated the birth of the prophet Muhammad with assidat zgougou, a pudding-like dessert garnished with nuts, dried fruits, and candies. For one day out of the year, families savor this uniquely Tunisian treat made from zgougou, seed of the Aleppo pine tree that grows abundantly throughout the Mediterranean. With some 360 thousand acres of Aleppo pine forest in Kasserine, Siliana, Kef and Bizerte, Tunisia is the only country where the tree’s black-grey seeds are harvested for human consumption.
