A mostly overlooked regional conference held in Lebanon earlier this month may prove to be a keystone to Arab cooperation on the environment. Gathering together the heads of Arab environmental ministries, the United Nations Development Program-sponsored “Environment Crimes in the Arab States” meeting was little covered outside of news agencies in the region, yet may prove to be an important point of cooperation in establishing a legal, as well as environmental, framework for the area.

By fostering a healthier cross-border dialogue on environmental crime- an area that has traditionally been met with lax enforcement in the region- hope could be raised for an increase in overall cooperation, among the goals set by the UNDP. Among the issues the conference identified as being intrinsically linked with environmental concerns were other challenges at the heart of regional strife, among them public health, government corruption, and economic progress. Much of this discord can be summed up in one phrase: lack of water, which has become the poster child for the way an environmental issue can affect all aspects of public life. Lebanese Environment Minister Antoine Karam cited the need to bulk up the laws of most Arab states with enforcement powers for environmental crimes, as well as make sure that enforcement actually took place. Karam said:

Issuing laws is not effective if they are not implemented…[We need] to support environmental institutions with legal experts so they can live up to their role [and establish] environmental police, courts, and trained environmental prosecutors.

A variety of suggestions for sharpening the regional treatment of environmental violators was suggested, including a blanket policy of “he who pollutes, pays”, as suggested by a representative from Lebanon’s Ministry of Justice.

Image: Conference participants