For each and every citizen of the Middle East, peace has been a dream - an
aspiration for which we have long yearned. Today, as progress is being
steadily made in the peace process, this dream is becoming a reality.
Israel has embarked on a mission from which there is no way back. We do
not want to return to the bloodshed, hatred and suffering which has marked
the history of the Middle East. Together with the countries and people of
the region, Israel has stepped onto the road to peace, and the world is
witnessing the dawning of a new era - an era of peace, cooperation and
hope in our region.
For us, the environmental community, peace is a special occasion for
rejoicing because war and protection of the environment are two
contradictory, mutually exclusive extremes. The Rio Declaration on
Environment and Development (1992) states that peace, development and
environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible. The unfolding
peace process in our region may well be the first implementation of this
principle. For the first time ever, environmental talks have served as
confidence-building measures to promote normalized relations among
nations. For the first time, the environment constitutes a stepping stone
toward peace, a meeting ground among nations as they forge new paths
toward peaceful coexistence.
New Hope for the Middle East Environment
The era of peace brings with it new hope for our environment. Peace offers
an opportunity for the peoples of the region to redirect resources from
security concerns to environmental projects and, in addition, to obtain
international aid and foreign investment for the construction and
improvement of environmental infrastructures which have been sorely
neglected in the past. The Middle East peace process has the potential to
foster mutual cooperation and coordinated activities, thereby providing a
valuable impetus to environmental activities which will benefit us all.
The bilateral and multilateral peace talks have already helped forge new
paths towards cooperation and collaboration on the sensitive issues facing
the Middle East . The fact that the environment has played a significant
role in these negotiations, highlights the new opportunities and
challenges which the environmental community of the region faces today.
Regional cooperation to protect an environmental asset shared by a number
of countries, some with vast political differences, is not an untried
concept. The need to preserve a region's environment, and recognition of
this need have already created a successful framework for regional
environmental cooperation in the Mediterranean Action Plan. For almost two
decades, the Mediterranean Action Plan was well ahead of its time.
Under MAP, the vision of regional cooperation for protection of fragile
resources, shared by all Mediterranean countries, became a reality. MAP
has demonstrated how professional expertise can be shared and how
information systems can be of mutual benefit. MAP has succeeded in doing
this despite the political complexity in which it operated. It proves that
if there is a will, there is a way. Today, the will to jointly tackle
regional problems, including environmental ones, is evident, and the way
is being found.
Peace brings the possibility of establishing new frameworks of cooperation
and joint management of shared resources. Instead of competing with each
other and ignoring our neighbors' needs, we can work together for our
mutual benefit. The Bahrain Environmental Code of Conduct for the Middle
East, endorsed as a morally binding document by the Working Group on the
Environment within the Middle East multilateral peace talks in October 1994,
is only an initial stage for such cooperative efforts. The endorsement of
the document is an important milestone for regional cooperation in the
Middle East, being the first document agreed upon by countries in the
region to guide their conduct towards their shared environment. The Code
set common values and norms which shall govern the development policies of
the parties in the region in a manner that will not damage the environment
of neighboring countries.
Common ground has also been found amongst the Middle East countries
participating in the multilateral peace talks on a wide range of subjects
of critical environmental concern. These include regional initiatives to
combat desertification and establish the Upper Gulf of Aqaba Oil Spill
Contingency Program - a joint Jordanian-Egyptian-Israeli project,
providing an effective regional framework to prevent marine pollution from
oil spills, and which has already been implemented.
Peace presents a unique opportunity for the peoples of the region to
concentrate efforts in dealingg with common environmental problems, and to
recruit resources for their solutions. Pollution knows no political
boundaries, totally ignoring the markings on a map. All the countries in
our region suffer the same environmental problems; we need the same
solutions and we compete for the same resources. We share water, land, air
and coastlines, making each and every country particularly vulnerable to
all forms of transboundary pollution. Regional cooperation is thus crucial.
Each country has its own commensurate advantage and individual
contribution to make, and together the countries of the Middle East can
benefit each other and the region.
The passage from enmity to peaceful cooperation should also witness the
flow of international assistance and investment to this region to provide
vital environmental infrastructures. The new reality in the Middle East
has guided the World Bank to submit to the international donor community
an assessment of the development needs and prospects of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip economies. The document emphasizes the need for regional
infrastructure networks - sewage and waste treatment facilities - to
protect the environment, and better use scant natural resources.
Development and the Environment
At the same time, peace in the Middle East is expected to usher in an era
of rapid economic development, inevitably placing enormous pressure on the
limited and fragile resources of our region. A new era awaits us with new
challenges concerning the environment of the region. Economic growth is a
most welcome offspring of co-existence, and will play a pivotal role in
enhancing peace in the region.
But, we must make sure that all development is sustainable development,
taking into consideration the needs of the environment. We must ensure the
rational use of resources, bearing in mind the necessity of preserving
them for future generations. We must ensure that the assessment of
environmental impacts of each project will be incorporated into the
planning process, and that measures will be taken to prevent environmental
degradation. This can only be achieved by strengthening the environmental
management structures of all the parties in the region so that they may
become elements of influence and authority in the development process.
This document, "Regional Environmental Cooperation and Development
Options", outlines specific regional development projects aimed to protect
the environment, while at the same time being economically viable. These
"environmental options" are an integral part of a larger project of
Development Options for Cooperation in the Middle East/East Mediterranean
Region for 1996 submitted at the Middle East/North Africa Economic Summit
held in Amman, Jordan in late 1995. The emphasis on environmental
considerations in development projects, and the joint environmental
initiatives under consideration, highlight the recognition in the region
that any development must be sustainable and Israel's firm commitment to
this important principle.
The problems posed by planned and future development projects are by no
means insurmountable. Israel and her peace partners are investing major
efforts to ensure that environmental considerations are incorporated in
all development schemes from the early stages of planning. At the dawn of
the new era of peace, innovative means are being sought to ensure that
development is carried out in an environmentally sound manner.
Conclusion
Israel fervently hopes that the continuation of the peace process will
indeed usher in an era of peace, environmental quality and sustainable
development, an era in which the environment will reap the benefits of the
peace process and the peace process will reap the benefits of
environmental cooperation. The signing of the peace agreement between
Egypt and Israel, the agreements between Israel and the Palestinians, the
Israel-Jordan peace treaty, the establishment of contacts and opening of
relations with a large number of Arab countries in the region and the
ongoing negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria, give us hope that in
the region, and in the world at large, we shall come together to establish
a sound, global policy for the future of the environment.
January 1996
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