The following article is the first part of Al Masry Al Youm’s weekly “Protectorates not Protected” series, in which Egypt’s protectorates will be covered with the aim to highlight the degree in which they are in fact environmentally ‘protected’.
Egypt's geographic location at the convergence of Africa and Asia, bordered by the Red and Mediterranean Seas, has endowed this land with a diversity of natural habitats. Yet its wide variety of habitats and wildlife are increasingly threatened by unregulated modernization, urbanization, industrialization, tourism, agriculture and the pollutions associated with them.
Efforts by the Egyptian government, environmental NGOs, locals and activists to establish and safeguard natural protectorates began in the early 1980s, and culminated in the passage of Law 102/1983 for Natural Protectorates. This law prohibits any activities environmentally detrimental to designated natural habitats. While the passage of such legislation is important, the active enforcement and implementation of this law and its provisions are generally lacking.
Despite being designated as natural protectorates, a number, if not all, of these protectorates are themselves threatened. Typically underfunded, under-staffed and confronted with numerous threats, these protectorates are subjected to destruction possibly beyond repair. The Protectorates of Lakes Bourollus and Manzala along with the (so-called) Petrified Forest are amongst the worst affected.
Egypt currently has a total of 28 natural protectorates found across the country covering an area of around 150,000 square kilometers or approximately 15 percent of Egypt's area. The Gulf of al-Salloum Protectorate, near the Libyan Border is the most recent habitat to be declared a natural protectorate in March 2010. Ras Mohammed, a unique coastal and marine habitat off the Southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula was the first area to be declared a natural protectorate in 1983.
The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) was established in 1982 and presided over by the prime minister. The EEAA was reconstituted in 1994 and only gained status from the Ministry of State in the year 1997–the first minister of state for environmental affairs assumed office that same year. Within the EEAA, the responsibility of designating and safeguarding natural protectorates has fallen to its Nature Protection Department. Egypt's protectorates are classified as being: geological, coastal/marine, desert, wetlands, important bird areas/habitats, and national heritage or world heritage sites.
The Natural Biodiversity Unit within the EEAA is also responsible for maintenance projects in designated protectorates. Natural protectorates are formally established via prime ministerial decree.
Adding to its international obligations, in terms of environmental protection, Egypt ratified the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 1978; and the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1994. According to its National Plan for the Conservation of Biological Diversity, Egypt aims to have a total of 40 protectorates covering 17 percent of its area by the year 2017.
Egypt's 28 protectorates in chronological order of their establishment by prime ministerial decree:
