JEDDAH: Palestine Wednesday participated in the first ministerial meeting of the Middle East Green Initiative in Jeddah.
The head of the Environment Quality Authority, Nisreen Tamimi, represented Palestine in the first meeting of the Ministerial Council for the Middle East Green Initiative, which was inaugurated in Jeddah under the chairmanship of Abdulrahman Al-Fadley, Saudi Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture.
During her speech, Tamimi pointed out that Palestine faces compounding challenges due to the Israeli occupation practices affecting the environment and natural resources, including razing agricultural land, uprooting trees and obstructing development projects.
She noted that in the Gaza Strip alone, the Israeli occupation destroyed two-thirds of agricultural land, accounting for over 150,000 donums before the onset of the ongoing genocidal aggression on October 7, 2023.
She affirmed that Palestine remains keen to conserve nature reserves and biodiversity despite all the obstacles arisi
ng from Israeli occupation’s military orders intended to take over and annex nature reserves by the means of launching a reforestation initiative that envisages planting 500,000 trees over the next three years to increase the vegetation cover by 50 per cent by 2030.
She affirmed Palestine’s commitment to act and engage in the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI), which aims to plant 50 billion trees across the region, representing 5% of the global reforestation goal, while pursuing national environmental policies designed to reduce the impacts of climate change.
She stressed then need for putting in place mechanisms that would guarantee the implementation of the MGI goals at the national level and the provision of financial and technical support to the states that are the most affected by environmental challenges.
MGI also seeks to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 670 million tons, contributing 10% of global efforts. This will help build a greener future for the Middle East by improving air quality, preven
ting soil erosion, providing wildlife habitats, and absorbing carbon dioxide to mitigate climate change.
Saudi Arabia first launched the Middle East Green Initiative at its inaugural summit in Riyadh in October 2021.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA