By Najib Saab, Issue 16, January-February 1999

Environmental debates in the Arab world often entail discussions of a variety of problems, weaknesses and flaws such as: water scarcity, desertification and land degradation, air pollution, coastal deterioration, uncontrolled municipal and toxic waste, lack of policies and generally poor environmental management. Compounded with global issues such as climate change, nuclear pollution and ozone depletion, the situation looks very gloomy.

AmoPeople tend to believe that we, environmental writers and analysts, are messengers of bad news and heralds of pessimism. While most Arab environmental news are actually bad, a fact which we cannot ignore, I would like to share some pleasant news and stories of Arab successes in certain environmental areas, at the outset of a new year.

The last herd of wild Arabian oryxes disappeared in 1972, due to over hunting and the use of powerful four-wheel drive cars which invaded their settlements in the desert. These animals were abundantly inhabiting the Arabian desert for centuries, before modern technology and bad practices threatened the species with extinction.

In 1962, nine oryxes were transferred to Phoenix Zoo in the United States, Breeding in captivity increased the number to 105 in 1970. Conservation efforts gained momentum when the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, brought 20 oryxes to Abu Dhabi in early seventies. They were allowed to breed under strict supervision in protected areas, with the personal care of Sheikh Zayed himself. As a result, their number today has exceeded one thousand. There is a plan to start soon releasing oryxes in the UAE from captivity to the wild, putting them back in their original habitat. Reintroducing the Arabian oryx to live and breed in the wild of the sahara after the species was on the verge of extinction, will certainly be an international breakthrough.

This has coincided with another successful green plan, again sponsored by Sheikh Zayed, which resulted in covering thousands of square kilometre of the desert with millions of trees, creating pleasant forests in the midst of the Empty Quarter, an otherwise dry and greenless area. While Zayed was greening the desert, other countries were losing their natural forests due to negligence and bad management.

In industries, we have witnessed few other impressive stories of environmental successes. The environmentally sound "cleaner production" practices have been introduced to the huge industrial city-complexes of Jubail and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, which won the Sasakawa Environmental Prize as a result. Cleaner production techniques were also adopted by the Aluminum Company of Bahrain (Alumaco), which has invested 270 million dollars to reduce fluoride emissions by 98 percent, suspended particulate matter emissions by 95 percent, and save energy by 15 percent. Oil refineries in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are utilizing modern technologies to reduce sulphur emissions and toxic gases in the atmosphere.

Another success story came from Syria. Between 1900 and 1995, Syrian forest land has been reduced from 32 percent to 2.6 percent. A Higher Reforestation Commission was established in 1977, aiming at replanting 15 percent of the Syrian land. In cooperation with the Ministry if Agriculture, the law of forests was amended, and a modern forest management plan was set to develop the forests and protect them from fires. Nurseries were established, forest seedlings were distributed at nominal prices, university forest research programmes were initiated and training and awareness campaigns covered the whole country. The information on the reforestation programme in Syria which was relayed to me by the head of the Higher Commission, Mr. Walid Hamdoun, was much less than the facts which the visitor can witness on the ground all over the Syrian regions, where barren lands are being again turned into green forests. At the present pace, the reforestation programme in Syria will achieve its stated goals within 10 years.

The summit of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states recently held in Abu Dhabi provided yet another boost to the environmental stride in the region. In a resolution which passed unnoticed by most observers, who were waiting for economic declarations affecting oil prices, GCC summit announced the decision to move to unleaded fuel in its six countries in the coming 3 years. Last October, Kuwait had already converted to unleaded fuel, and Saudi Arabia has also announced a detailed programme to shift to unleaded fuel in 2 years. This trend will definitely be multiplied in the whole region, decisively contributing to the improvement in air quality in Arab cities, where lead is considered the major air pollutant with major health hazards.

In Lebanon, there is hope that environment might be placed on the political agenda, as president Emile Lahoud condemned "environmental crimes" in his inaugural speech, and the new cabinet detailed its environmental policy in Crystal-clear words for the first time. In its statement to the parliament, the government promised to "develop a national environmental policy, address environmental priorities in the framework of defined strategy and establish an institutional coordination system among different government departments to assess the environmental impact of projects." Again, it is gratifying to hear the key words of environmental policy, priorities, institutions, coordination and impact assessment, in a policy statement of an Arab government.

National environmental policies and practical plans similar to those few mentioned, are the basis for deep-rooted long term change, capable of transferring the Arab world to the era of sound environmental management and wise resource development. This can only be achieved through environmental institutions and policy commitments, not casual groupings and selective short-term agendas.