Egypt, a country where pharaohs once commanded the Nile and cats enjoyed diplomatic immunity, is now wrestling with modern environmental challenges that no ancient scribe could have predicted. The nation faces a complex tangle of issues: rapid urbanization, shrinking green spaces, plastic waste that seems to multiply like desert mirages, and the slow but steady warming of the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Add to that the annual drama of the Nile — too much water, too little water, or water carrying things that nobody wants to swim with — and you have a country navigating a delicate ecological tightrope.
But Egypt isn’t just struggling; it’s also innovating. And some of its most creative solutions come not from ministries but from civil society. Nature Conservation Egypt is one of the country’s leading environmental NGOs, championing bird protection, wetland conservation, and the survival of migratory species that treat Egypt like an airport lounge on their way between continents. Their fieldwork in places like Lake Qarun and the Red Sea wetlands has quietly shaped policy for years.
Then there’s HEPCA — the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association — a powerhouse NGO guarding the Red Sea’s coral reefs from overfishing, careless tourism, and the occasional boat captain who mistakes a reef for a parking spot. HEPCA’s mooring buoy system has become a regional model, proving that even popular tourist hubs can protect biodiversity when the rules are clear and the buoys are bright blue.
New sustainability movements are popping up too: youth-led recycling initiatives in Cairo, clean-energy startups in Alexandria, gardens and hydroponics farms on rooftops and Nile cleanup campaigns that feel half environmental crusade, half street festival. Egypt’s ambitious Benban Solar Park, one of the largest in the world, shows what national-scale renewable energy can look like when the sun cooperates — and in Egypt, it usually does. Almost every day is a beach day.
BenBan Solar Park from above. The Benban Solar Park has a total installed capacity of 1.65 gigawatts (GW). It’s one of the largest solar installations in the world and a major pillar of Egypt’s renewable-energy strategy.
Eco-challenges remain big, but the momentum is growing. In true Egyptian style, progress arrives with a mix of determination, improvisation, and just enough humor to survive the heat.
The three winners from the Middle East/MENA region are Tunisia, Bahrain and Qatar in new survey on tourism trends. The recently released 2011 “Travel and Tourism Competitiveness”report by the World Economic Forum, in co-operation with Booz & Company, reveals some interesting dynamics in the global tourism industry, including a shift to the East, with Central and […]
Sunrise from summit of Mt. Sinai – some say “God’s Mountain”. The peninsula offers more than just pristine beaches. Following Egypt’s recent revolution resulting in the Mubarek family being ousted from power, the country’s lucrative tourism industry has been struggling to find ways to entice foreign tourists to return. One Egyptian Hisham Nessim, a businessman […]
Make wind power? Egypt wants to talk to you about its electricity needs. In a summary of the policy environment for wind power in Egypt completed after the revolution earlier this year, Reve sums up the policy background to Egypt’s dramatic new post-revolution energy and environmental tenders plan, which we have covered at Green Prophet too. They’re big […]
Conservative Muslim bloggers and women’s rights activists bring harassers and inadequate legal and cultural protection to task, with women leading the charge. Women’s rights are a key environmental issue, a topic we’ve covered in recent articles about the need for a language revolution and the Arab Spring of women. Women in the MENA region are […]
Sabotaged Gas Pipeline: Relying on Egypt in future is doubtful Israel’s interest in natural gas as an energy source has been written about several times on Green Prophet, beginning with the Yam Tethy gas exploration projects in the Eastern Mediterranean. With the second sabotage of the natural gas pipeline between Egypt, Israel and Jordan, a […]
Abandoned dogs near Fukushima forced to roam in packs to find food Despite the sad tragedy of what are now being called the “Fukushima Dead Zone Pets” all is not completely lost for these poor animals: a number of concerned Japanese citizens are willing to risk radiation exposure to themselves in order to save and […]
ResponsibleTravel.com customers on holiday in Egypt. Feluccas and Pharoahs, a popular trip. British ethical tourism pioneers ResponsibleTravel.com has celebrated its tenth birthday by announcing its biggest ten sellers over the last decade – and Middle Eastern destinations top the list. Responsible Travel offers hundreds of holidays across the world and its birthday announcement also included […]
Car parts, scrap metal, fish and produce from Japan won’t enter Egyptian ports. Traces of radiation, likely from Japan, have been clocked at Israel’s nuclear research station, and Bahrain is building a contingency plan should radiation levels spiral further out of control in Japan. Now, Egypt has declared that it will halt all import of […]
As Egyptian struggles for human rights, animal rights activists speak for those who can’t. Egyptian animal welfare societies and activists are calling for a protest this Saturday outside the Cairo Zoo in Giza. According to animal rights activists Egypt has become a hub for international illegal trade in wildlife. We’ve reported earlier about the horses […]
Feeling bad about your junk food diet? New research on Egyptian mummies finds death by clogged arteries. There was no Golden Arches or Krispy Kreme doughnuts for ancient Egyptian royalty. And they weren’t smokers, addicted to the Internet, or couch potatoes. But they do share similar health consequences with the people who do these things […]
Could First Choice all-inclusive holidays spell the end for small businesses in Middle Eastern resorts? First Choice, one of Britain’s leading package holiday companies, announced this week that all holidays sold as of 2012 under its brand will be all-inclusive. This means that as well as flights and hotels, the price that tourists pay up-front […]
Abandoned Fukushima “dead zone” dog: its face says it all! The radiation, sadly, lingers in its fur. With escalating rates of radiation, and an upgrade to 7 in terms of severity, it’s not only humans who have suffered from Japan’s 9 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and radiation leakage in northeastern Japan. Thousands of dogs, cats, and […]
Middle East NGOs must cross social, political and religious barriers to achieve long-term solutions to solve their regional complex environmental problems. While changes in political landscape across the Middle East and North Africa continue to pose immediate security and economic challenges for the region, can the environmental movement find a voice through wider political participation […]
Senator Snowe and her 16 female Senate Colleagues Introduce a Resolution Calling for Women’s Rights in North Africa and the Middle East. Following weeks of tumult and protests in North Africa and the Middle East, Senator Olympia J. Snowe, a Republican from Maine, is leading her 16 female Senate colleagues in emphasizing the vital importance […]
Amnesty International has called on the Egyptian authorities to investigate serious allegations of torture, including forced ‘virginity tests’, inflicted by the army on women protesters (we've written about in Egypt) arrested in Tahrir Square earlier this month.