Environmental Justice

Photo by Marta Bogdanska

Introduction

The Middle East is characterized by high income economies relying on energy exports, and middle to low income economies with limited resources for export. Both developmental models tend to neglect sustainability - but pollution, climate change and loss of natural resources already are rampant and will effect future generations even more drastically. Pushing for sustainable development is also a question of justice: between current and future generations, but also between those who have the means to isolate themselves from the negative repercussions of unsustainable practices, and those who have to bear the brunt of it.

The program Environmental Justice puts special emphasis on the issues of climate change and renewable energies, on the access to public resources, and the right to sustainable agriculture and a just international trade regime.

Events

Preparatory Meeting

What are we Expecting from the UNFCCC COP 17 Meeting in Durban?

Organized by the Lebanese Commission for Environment and Development in collaboration with the Heinrich Boell Stiftung, Middle East Office, the Ministry of Environment and the League of Independent Activists, Indyact.

Regional Summer School

Climate Change – Intelligent Energy Policies – Nuclear Energy

- Heybeliada/Istanbul-Turkey
3 – 8 July 2010

Heinrich Böll Foundation, represented by its offices in Istanbul, Ramallah and Beirut, has hosted a Regional Summer School on “Climate Change, Intelligent Energy Policies and Nuclear Energy” in Istanbul, Turkey from July 3 – 8, 2010.

Participants from Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey had been selected to attend the Regional Summer School.

Workshop Report

Arab World Policy for Post-2012 Negotiations

- On October 14 - 15, 2008, the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy & International Affairs and the League of Independant Activists -indyACT hosted a two-day workshop in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung - Middle east Office to build the capacity of Arab climate change stakeholders and produce a regional statement on climate policy. more»

Articles

NGOs and Climate Crisis: Fragmentation, Lines of Conflict and Strategic Approaches

Climate policy active NGOs and movements are fragmented and characterized by heterogeneous interests. Cleavages exist in important issues and the choice of strategies. A discussion of complementary strategies and division of labor is an urgent need. By Barbara Unmüßig more»

Study

Climate Change and Tourism in Lebanon

- Worldwide, the inexorable growth of the tourism sector with its high demand for land and other resources has reignited the debate about the environmental impact of tourism. Given the number of natural attractions in Lebanon on the one hand and the fact that its tourism development is only beginning anew on the other hand, it offers a rare opportunity to sufficiently consider, at least in theory, the interrelations of climate change and tourism from the onset. By Manja Riebe more»

Report

Years of Drought: A Report on the Effects of Drought on the Syrian Peninsula

- Years of drought have affected the eastern and northeastern regions of Syria, which are also known as the Syrian “peninsula” or “jazira”, which is considered the (agricultural) backbone of the country, the drought has led to a significant reduction in agricultural production in this area and consequently a decline in the national economy. One of the major consequences of the drought is that it has driven the majority of the population from this area towards the interior governorates in Syria where people have gone in search of a livelihood and shelter. This internal migration has also produced many humanitarian, social and health problems. By Masoud Ali more»

Report

No Plan? ... Money rules! Lebanon’s Construction Boom and the Challenges to Urban and Environmental Planning

- While a number of countries slid into recession during the year 2008, Lebanon witnessed spectacular economic growth rates. Most of the growth is, however, due to the recent boom in the construction sector. Not only is this development over-heated, it is also largely taking place without any planning, or the implementation of state or communal regulations. By Waltraud Frommherz-Hassib more»

Projects

Research

Sustainable Bedouin Livelihoods in a Changing World: Surviving Droughts, Policies and Markets – Phase 2

The Issam Fares Institute of the American University of Beirut initiated this project aiming at understanding the impact of political, economic and environmental change, including climate change, on a marginal Bedouin community in the Bekaa plain, Lebanon in 2009. more»

Student Competition

Promoting Sustainable Construction in Lebanese Universities

- MAJAL, the Academic Urban Observatory, initiated in 2008 the project entitled “Promoting Sustainable Construction in Lebanese Universities” aiming at raising awareness on specific sustainable construction techniques in schools of architecture across Lebanon thus inciting students to apply sustainability standards in their design projects and encouraging school administrations to introduce classes on sustainable construction in their curricula. more»

Campaign

Access to Rights – Rights to Resources: A Cross-cutting Campaign for Environmental, Economic and Social Rights

- Green Line’s mission is to promote environmental awareness and document environmental threat in order to better confront them, thus introducing change at the community level within the concept of sustainable development. more»

Publications

Print and Online Publication

Perspectives #1 April 2011: Nuclear Energy and the Arab World - Ambition and Peril

In the first edition of Perspectives Middle East, activists and decision-makers from the Arab world and Europe critically discuss the transfer and use of civilian nuclear energy in the region.

With contributions from Mohamed Abdel Raouf, Hamed Beheshti, Ali Darwish, Leila Ghanem, Dennis Kumentat und Nikolaus Supersberger, Najib Saab, Larbi Sadiki, und Jürgen Trittin. more»

Edited Volume

Urban Futures 2030

- Half of the world's population lives in cities. This publication gathers the answers of selected experts to the challenges of sustainable urban planing and architecture. more»

Study

Climate Change and the Right to Food

- This study highlights how the climate change regime and the human rights regime addressing the right to food have failed to coordinate their agendas and to collaborate to each other’s mutual benefit. It proposes concrete methods by which institutions can address climate change problems and realize the right to food symbiotically, in compliance with the principles of systemic integration under international law. more»

Guide Book

The Myth of Nuclear Power

- The myth of nuclear power keeps persevering. Therefore the Heinrich Böll Foundation has commissioned renowned international nuclear experts to deliver detailed facts central to the myths of nuclear energy. This overview provides the public with a current, facts rich and nuclear-critical know-how. more»

Magazine

Bada’el Issue on “Health, Epidemics and Climate Change”

- Bada’el is a Lebanese environmental magazine published by the Lebanese Association Ecologia. With the support of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, an issue of Badae’l on “Health, Epidemics and Climate Change” will be released in September 2010. more»

Book

Tales of the Badia - Bedouin Folk Tales from Lebanon

- This book, written by a woman of the Bedouin community in the Lebanese Bekaa valley, is a compendium of some of the Bedouin tales (Sawalef) orally transmitted in the Abu Eid community. The tales are recounted in Bedouin dialect. By making public some of the oral history of that community, the books sheds light on the life of the marginalized Bedouins of Lebanon.

Edited Volume

At the Edge of the City - Reinhabiting Public Space toward the Recovery of Beirut’s Horsh Al-Sanawbar

- Since the early 1990s, Beirut’s Park, Horsh Al-Sanawbar, was sealed off from the lives of many Beiruti residents and visitors, with numerous justifications for their exclusion. At the Edge of the City aspires to chart an alternative discourse from that which produces this exclusion. Through exploring issues of advocacy and politics, the book aims to provide a platform to contest the existing governance of Horsh Al-Sanawbar and to bring forward a well-informed public space policy agenda.

Published by DISCURSIVE FORMATIONS with the support of Heinrich Böll Stiftung – Middle East Office

Report

Slow Trade - Sound Farming: A Multilateral Framework for Sustainable Markets in Agriculture

- Within the Workshop "Food Sovereignty vs. Free Trade, Towards an Alternative Multilateral Agricultural Governance Framework" organized by the Green Line Association, the launching of the Arabic version of the "Slow Trade - Sound Farming: A Multilateral Framework for Sustainable Markets in Agriculture", will take place. This publication was developed by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and MISEREOR. more»

Conference Report

Green Wars? Environment between Conflict and Cooperation in the Middle East and North Africa

- This conference was held on November 2-3, 2007 and tackled the darker side of the environment-conflict-nexus, but also the opportunities for find common ground over environmental issues. more»

Contact