By David Banisar – Oil spills. Air pollution. Toxins in ground and sea water. Desertification. The environmental situation in countries across the Middle East is perilous and getting worse. According to the UN in the 2010 Environment Outlook for the Arab Region report, the region is “facing critical environmental issues” as well as new threats and natural hazards.
Beneath the wave of dissent focused primarily on economic woes and democratic deficits, there lay an extreme food and water crisis, and an inability – or unwillingness – of governments to do something about it…
In a complaining letter, dating of April 16th 2013, (see below), addressed to the General Director of forests for the regional office for agricultural development in Kebili. Five local NGO’s in Douz-one of them is “Tunisie Ecologie”, lead by Abdel Majid Dabbar-denounce the the serious fauna and flora breaches in the Tunisian Sahara and that by several illegal practices, including poaching of protected species by a definite group coming from Gulf countries.
This special Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) update is brought to you by the newly launched Tunisian Environment Reporting Network, who are currently attending the 40th meeting of the Parties as part of the Internews Europe and Earth Journalism Network grant, supported by World Environment Magazine.
An Arab Youth Climate Movement calling for a more sustainable future in the region will launch simultaneously across more than a dozen countries in the Middle East and North Africa on 10 November 2012, ahead of the upcoming 18th Conference of the Parties (COP 18)….
