Environmental Awareness Day was on 5 June, with government and companies celebrating the event in Al-Azhar Park, writes Mahmoud Bakr It was the right place to celebrate the environment: Al-Azhar Park, the greenest place in Cairo. Officials from the Ministry of Environment, led by Maged George, minister of state for environmental affairs, along with environmental experts, civil-society activists and school and university students celebrated Environmental Awareness Day on 5 June at the park in the company of delegations from several of the country's environmentally minded governorates. The slogans on the banners displayed at the park were familiar: one planet, one future, many species. The emphasis was on biological diversity and the preservation of endangered species. Companies represented at the celebration were also partners in the country's first zero-carbon event, a reference to the absence of greenhouse emissions resulting from the celebrations. Greenhouse gas emissions are blamed for global warming and are considered a main threat to biological diversity, as well as to the life and livelihood of millions of people. The UN General Assembly has declared 2010 International Year of Biological Diversity, a move aimed to promote awareness of environmental issues worldwide. Speaking at the Al-Azhar Park event George said that Egypt had been blessed with unique natural resources and a wealth of marine and terrestrial life, all of which must be seen as a strategic reservoir of biological resources. "Coral reefs, for instance, are of great economic value to this country since they attract tourists. Similarly, desert fauna and flora, found in various parts of the Eastern and Western deserts as well as in the Sinai, attract researchers from across the world," George said. Among the projects reviewed at the event were projects for the safe disposal of batteries and electronic waste implemented by the governorates of Assiut and Al-Wadi Al-Gadid, in which the government's Environmental Affairs Agency and the telecommunications company Mobinil are acting as partners. Groups that have taken part in the campaign in Assiut received awards at the event, with the Scientific Society of Al-Wadi Al-Gadid receiving a gift of three cycles from Mobinil to help with the disposal project. Addressing the audience, Major-General Abdel-Rahman Rashed of Assiut governorate called on all Egyptians to help protect the environment. "The governorate will take a firm line with people who violate environmental laws, and local councils need to raise awareness of the need to recycle waste, plant trees, and open parks to the public," he said. According to Seham Sayed Mohamed, director of the Assiut Environment Department, the government, people, and civil society should cooperate to protect the environment. She added that the governorate of Assiut had been experiencing improvements in its development because of the efforts of its forward- looking governor, Nabil El-Ezabi. Regarding threats to the planet's biological diversity, Nader Shehata, a scientist with the Assiut Environment Department, said that pollution remained a great danger, with "nearly 100 species on average dying out every day, some of which could have been essential for the production of medicines." Speaking on behalf of the Al-Wadi Al-Gadid governorate, its secretary-general, Major- General Sayed Abul-Fotouh, said that the governorate was supporting civil society organisations active in environmental protection, adding that it was also planning a joint conference with the Ministry of Investment in order to explore aspects of sustainable and environmentally friendly development. Adel Nafad, director of the Al-Wadi Al-Gadid Environmental Affairs Agency, said that efforts to clean and improve the governorate were proceeding well. The governorate, he added, had been encouraging civil society organisations to focus on preserving handicraft industries that used palm fronds and other natural materials. Other speakers, such as Samia Ayoub, president of the Science Society, said that projects were underway to train young people in environmentally friendly industries. Some LE175,000 had been earmarked to create a handicraft training centre for young people, Ayoub said, the idea being to use palm fronds to produce hand-made goods. The project was being set up in cooperation with the Environmental Affairs Agency, and cycles to collect refuse had been bought in cooperation with the Mobinil Health and Environment Department. Abdel-Masih Samaan, a professor of educational science and environmental communication at the Institute of Environmental Research, spoke about the importance of environmental awareness when disposing of waste. The lack of resources and the escalating amount of waste produced in the country were major threats, he said, adding that there was a need for more effective recycling in future. Speaking on behalf of Mobinil, Sherif Eissa, director of the company's health and environment department, said that Mobinil was disguising its phone installations as artificial trees in order to emphasise environmental and aesthetic awareness. The first tree had already been placed in Montazah Park, he said, and solar energy was being used to operate repeater stations, of which the company now had 100. For Nabil Makram, an environmental awareness officer at Mobinil, the problem of electronic waste was also a persistent one, and for this reason the company had set up a policy of recycling all its old computers and printers. It had also collected nearly 200 working computers and offered them as a gift to various civil society organisations, he said.
