| | Boycott the environmental circus
| | By Najib Saab
July-August 1999
Around the World Environment Day this time of the year, environment becomes a popular subject in mass media and among the public. This verbal momentum needs to be encouraged if it supports spreading environmental awareness through lectures, debates, radio and TV programmes and field activities. But exploiting environmental occasions for the promotional campaigns of certain commercial ventures is a practice that should be rejected and exposed. Even worse, certain sectors of the media have become victims of commercial campaigns camouflaged by environmental mottoes, designed to tame the public opinion. | | more... | |
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| | Environment: A Second Class Ministry
| | By Najib Saab
May- June 1999
Introducing ministries of environment and public environmental bodies have for long been the goal of environmentalists in the Arab countries. We have always followed their activities with enthusiasm in every Arab country. However, the presence of such environmental institutions will remain useless unless they have power, authority and political clout. Some Arab ministries of environment have actually turned into ornaments, incapable of implementing any significant programme. | | more... | |
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| | Environmental Cold War Among International Agencies
| | By Najib Saab
March-April 1999
Amidst more than one dozen international environmental initiatives that mushroomed in the aftermath of the Earth Summit in 1992, the leading role of the main international environmental agency, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has often been downgraded and confused. During its first twenty years (1972-1992), UNEP was the international environmental power behind major global initiatives. This led to the establishment of international conventions that, for the first time, set controls and regulations to a variety of industrial and development activities affecting the environment. The conventions which now guide the global environmental action were all initiated by UNEP: Desertification, Climate Change, Ozone, Biodiversity, Regional Seas, Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, and many others. | | more... | |
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| | Arab environmental successes in a year
| | By Najib Saab
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. | | more... | |
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 | | | Arab Environment in 10 Years | | | ARAB ENVIRONMENT IN 10 YEARS crowns a decade of the series of annual reports produced by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) on the state of Arab environment. It tracks and analyzes changes focusing on policies and governance, including level of response and engagement in international environmental treaties. It also highlights developments in six selected priority areas, namely water, energy, air, food, green economy and environmental scientific research. |
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