The Middle East & North Africa

“The next two United Nations climate negotiations will take place in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). COP27 will be in Egypt this November. . . Extreme weather – including unprecedented heatwaves and flash floods – in MENA countries over the last few years has made the severity of the situation impossible to ignore. . . MENA is the most water-scarce of the world’s major regions. A combination of petroleum rents and foreign aid have over the last half century enabled rapid population growth, urban expansion and increasing food imports. . . climate impacts will not be limited within national borders or regions, but will cascade, affecting food supplies, migration patterns, investments, humanitarian operations and politics in societies far from the original flashpoint.”

Over the past decade, observers have watched with trepidation as tensions increased between Egypt and Ethiopia over the construction of the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River. Egyptian politicians have publicly threatened war to defend what they see as their existential interest – Egypt’s right to use most of the Nile’s water. Over 80% of the water that reaches Egypt comes from Ethiopia.

“Give a tree a holy meaning and it will be protected in a faith community.”

According to the Climate Change Performance Index 2019 (developed by a global network of climate-focused NGOs), Morocco ranks second after Sweden (ahead of Lithuania) on climate change preparedness and policies. "Over the past five years, Morocco has strengthened its efforts towards sustainable development through the increase in the share of renewable energy and the development of new renewable energy capacities. In particular, it has set up the world’s largest solar power plant and numerous wind farms connected to the electricity grid."

"Located in the emirate of Fujairah, the site consists of a water catchment area in an arid climate that is part of the Hajar mountain range. It hosts a rich fauna and flora endemic to the Arabian Peninsula and is one of the last Emirati places where traditional farming practices are still maintained. The wadi is home to 81 bird species, 20 mammal species, at least nine reptile and amphibian species and 467 invertebrates." Wadi[Valley] Wurayah has also been designated as a Ramsar Wetland of International importance, and was decreed the UAE's first national park in 2009. 

"As temperatures rise, the cedars’ ecological comfort zone is moving up the mountains to higher altitudes, chasing the cold winters they need to reproduce. But here in the Barouk forest, part of the Shouf Biosphere Reserve, south of Beirut, there isn’t much farther up to go. If the climate warms at the rates expected because of the continued rise of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, some scholars say that by 2100 cedars will be able to thrive only at the northern tip of the country, where the mountains are higher. In the north, though, there are different problems. Lebanon’s densest cedar forest, the Tannourine Cedars Forest Nature Reserve, has lost more than 7 percent of its trees to insect infestations unknown before 1997. They are directly tied to a warming, drying climate."

"A new NASA study finds that the recent drought that began in 1998 in the eastern Mediterranean Levant region, which comprises Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey, is likely the worst drought of the past nine centuries. Scientists reconstructed the Mediterranean’s drought history by studying tree rings as part of an effort to understand the region’s climate and what shifts water to or from the area. Thin rings indicate dry years while thick rings show years when water was plentiful."

"The Persian Gulf region is especially vulnerable, the researchers say, because of a combination of low elevations, clear sky, water body that increases heat absorption, and the shallowness of the Persian Gulf itself, which produces high water temperatures that lead to strong evaporation and very high humidity."

“Seagrass meadows are hotspots for carbon accumulation in the biosphere, with stores comparable to temperate and tropical forests... The most extensive seagrass meadows in the Arabian Gulf are found along the coast of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which have been estimated to cover 5,500 km2... The total CO2 stored in Abu Dhabi’s seagrass beds is roughly 70% of the total annual CO2 emissions as reported by AlFarra and Abu-Hijleh... Many marine environments within the Arabian Gulf face threats from coastal development and land-use alterations. Industrial development, land reclamation, desalination, and oil exploration all serve to affect the health and integrity of coastal seagrass meadows, posing significant challenges to current and future rates of carbon burial.”

"The Arabian Oryx, a species of antelope found only on the Arabian Peninsula, is locally known as Al Maha. It is believed the last wild individual was shot in 1972. This year, thanks to successful captive breeding and re-introduction efforts, the oryx has finally qualified for a move from the Endangered category to Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List—the first time that a species that was once Extinct in the Wild has improved by three categories."

Through all the forest a bird began to sing: […] were answering one another, a constant din was the noise, A solitary  tree-cricket set off a noisy chorus, […] were singing a song, making the … pipe loud. A wood pigeon was moaning, a turtle dove calling in answer. [At the call of] the stork, the forest exults, [at the cry of] the francolin, the forest exults in plenty. [Monkey mothers] sing aloud, a youngster monkey shrieks: [like a band(?)] of musicians and drummers(?), daily they bash out a rhythm in the presence of Humbaba

"Scientists gathered in Damascus, Syria, kick-started the first meeting of the Arab Climate Resilience Initiative, citing water scarcity and desertification as two of the biggest threats facing the region over the next few decades....Most of the Arab states fall below the water scarcity level of 1,000 m3 per capita annually, according to the UNDP Arab Human Development report. Over 90% of the region lies within arid or semi-arid areas. Booming population growth, one of the fastest in the world, stretches water and agriculture resources to their limits."

"As Egypt celebrates the 50th anniversary of the start of the construction of the Aswan High Dam, some scientists say that this wonder of engineering is contributing to an environmental catastrophe that could force millions of its citizens to abandon the lush, fertile delta. The worst of these is coastal erosion and subsidence, the compacting of the delta soil. For millennia, the untamed Nile compensated for these natural processes by delivering fresh sediments along with its fresh water. The dam, however, now blocks the sediments far upstream of Cairo. As a result, the delta is sinking. At the same time, the Mediterranean Sea is expected to rise as a result of global warming."

Afghanistan established its first national park on April 22, 2009, to promote and protect the natural beauty of a series of intensely blue lakes created by natural dams high in the Hindu Kush. Band-e-Amir is a chain of six lakes in the mountainous desert of central Afghanistan. The lakes formed from mineral-rich water that seeped out of faults and cracks in the rocky landscape. Over time, the water deposited layers of hardened mineral (travertine) that built up into walls that now contain the water.