Mahmoud Bakr quizzes out State Minister of Environment Maged George about Egypt's plans for World Environment Day This year the World Environment Day's main topic is deserts and desertification -- a particularly pressing issue on Egypt's environmental agenda. World Environment day dates back to 1972, when the UN General Assembly dedicated 5 June of every year to the environment by way of commemorating the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, which had launched the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Under the slogan "Don't Desert Drylands", Algiers will be hosting the main celebrations this year, but according to State Minister of Environment Maged George, Egypt is staging a barrage of events to mark the event. Activities begin on Monday 5 June with an exhibition at Beit Al-Qahira, where all the desert governorates -- Al-Wadi Al-Gedid, Marsa Matrouh, North and South Sinai, and the Red Sea -- will showcase environmentally friendly products. Starting on 6 June, a two-day forum will discuss, respectively, international environment agreements, the Egyptian anti-desertification programme, the activities of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, desert livestock breeding, sand dunes, forestation; and the relationship between people and the environment, the socio-economic dimension of environmental tourism, the use of plant genetic resources in controlling desertification, non-conventional desert tourism, and the economics of the western North Coast area and the Western Desert. The Ministry of Environment will also launch information booklets dealing with a range of issues from the use of plants in anti-desertification to protectorates and biological diversity. The celebrations will provide an occasion to announce the signing of a protocol with the Ministry of Agriculture to supply 150,000 trees to desert governorates, George added, while on the occasion, the Ministry of Culture will present the Cairo Opera House with an art exhibition, a folk performance, a panel discussion and three documentaries on quicksand, Siwa, and Toshka. Free excursions to the protectorates are also organised by the Ministry of Environment, as well as environmental competitions for adults and children, while the Transport Ministry will reduce metro fares 27 NGOs will participate with programmes of their own. Starting on 3 June, a week of traffic discipline will see cars being checked for emissions. Egypt is celebrating the World Environment Day with such zest, George revealed, because the government wants to "send a message to the public". He added, "we seek to involve citizens in the activities of our ministry and other competent authorities -- and to throw light on the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the importance of Egypt's participation in that worldwide event. We also want to send a message to the world at large, since the role of every country and its activities during World Environment Day will go on record." As for the measures being implemented to overcome desertification in Egypt, George pointed out that some 96 per cent of Egypt's surface area is desert: "Our deserts are among the most beautiful in the world. We have plans to control desertification and develop nature preserves, to preserve wetlands and coastal ecological systems and endorse biological diversity in the Mediterranean. We have established new protectorates in Al-Zaraniq, Al-Burullus and Al-Amid. Another project aims to preserve Egyptian medicinal plants and promote their sustainable cultivation in dry and semi-dry ecological systems. We're also creating a green belt around greater Cairo. We've already planted 14 square kilometres and are about to finish the first phase of that project. We're cooperating with the Ministry of Social Insurance in this regard, and have employed 500 young men to help us in this project. We have an ambitious forest programme in various governorates, to be established with that of recycled sewerage. We're also making efforts to reconcile mining activities with the environment and to control land pollution. We're conducting a full assessment of the environmental impact of mining in specific locations..." Sustainable development is never far from George's mind, however, so even as efforts are expended to combat forestation, "our national committee on sustainable development remains active through economic, social and environmental endeavours". Ten new programmes have in fact been drawn up to restore environmental equilibrium in areas where development initiatives are to be implemented: "We have a national programme for recycling, another for information systems and environmental monitoring, a third for anti- pollution. We also have a programme for transferring environmentally friendly technology and several programmes to boost Egyptian exports and enhance education, training and environmental media. We're also active in protecting the environment and managing the protectorates. We have a programme for forestation and increasing green areas and a programme for supporting the institutional capacity of the Environmental Affairs Agency. In this regard it is worth mentioning that we also have a number of successful examples of cooperation between local communities and the ministry. In the protectorates of Al-Amid, St Catherine and Siwa, the locals are actively involved in projects and many of them are employed in functions that help combat desertification. As for motivating the private sector," George adds, "we're encouraging businessmen to establish a centre for medicinal plant production through tissue implants -- the standard method now. Such an effort should help preserve the genetic resources of these plants, especially in the protectorates. Medicinal and perfume plants are good investments with high returns for exporters and the pharmaceutical industry. The ministry is helping businesses use recycled and treated sewerage in a safe manner to grow forests in desert areas. We have chosen those types of trees that are of high economic returns, such as the African mahogany, which is used in furniture. And we're promoting the cultivation of ganzofa, a tree whose wood can be used to produce organic fuel, the type that, when added to gasoline, can decrease harmful emissions..."
