Population growth in the Middle East is expected to decline after more than 50 years of sharp rises, according to a report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Mirroring trends in other areas of the world, birth rates are expected to fall as urbanization and contraception become commonplace, but also as women have greater access to education and employment.

As the report makes clear, there is no question that the population drop raises a new set of challenges. Countries in the region will have to adapt first to a wave of young employment-seekers, many of whom want to find premium civil service jobs, and then a second wave of elderly retirees. Yet the slow-down of population also might allay some fears that the Middle East is overpopulated beyond its resource base, with arable land and, most severely, water always a concern. As writer Nina Hjerpset Ostlie explains in an editorial on population growth, the need to address issues of overpopulation and resource use in the Middle East has been brewing since populations first began to expand in the 1950’s. She worries that European leaders will be particularly hostile toward Muslim immigrants who will be forced to emigrate from their home countries into Western Europe due to problems stemming from overpopulation. Likewise, she cites population growth as a taboo subject for politicians, saying:

Every decade the growth of mankind far exceeds the present number of humans in Europe from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Range. How many decades can the globe’s environment sustain this? In this situation, will it be at all possible to save the globe without limiting the growth of populations, for example like the Mullahs’ measures in Iran? But what politician can get away with saying something like that?

Image: Crowds in Dubai

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

The 5th World Water Forum entered its 5th day on the heels of productive discussions by Middle Eastern leaders on the future of water resources in the region the UN calls a flashpoint for water shortages.

The Arab Countries session of the Forum opened on a positive note with a call by Mahmoud Abu Zeid of the Arab Water Council for countries to work together across state lines and to share information on water usage with other nations and the Arab Water College.

The organizations’ executive director, Safwat Abdel-Dayem, echoed Abu Zeid’s calls and introduced a big piece of the water puzzle: the Arab Countries Regional Process program, which helps to promote water sharing and education on water shortages. The initiative for regional cooperation was strongly supported by a big name in the conference, as the former Sudanese prime minister Al Sadiq Alhmadi disputed the logic that water was a resource like oil that could be owned by a single state. On the contrary, Al Sadiq explained, water in the Middle East had to be shared equally, a call further reinforced by representatives from Iraq, whose primary rivers flow through two countries before reaching their own.

Image: Protesters at the World Water Forum, Istanbul

The fight against plastic bags spread from cities and states in the United States- from California to Illinois- into a perhaps unexpected locale: Oman.

Led by High Princess Sayyida Tania bint Shabib Al Said, the campaign has had surprising success. “Bearing in mind that many of the shoppers and visitors we spoke to had no prior knowledge of recycling or the effects plastic bags are having on the environment,” Al Said has been delighted with the response, reports the Khaleej Times.

The program involves the replacement of plastic bags with complimentary jute carryalls, a move underwritten by corporate sponsors. Among the events accompanying the campaign are lectures at area universities and demonstrations of the devastating shelf life of plastic in trash heaps.

The effort against plastic bags has only been the latest in a series of steps taken by the rapidly industrializing nation to alleviate the effects of environmental damage. Earlier in March, the national government placed a series of 10 boat moaring buoys above protected coral reefs to avoid damage from boat hulls and water traffic. The initiative, similarly headed by the High Princess’s nonprofit the Environment Society of Oman with corporate support from a real estate developer, aims to release the final two buoys in April.

Image: The anti-plastic bag campaign bag campaign reaches Nizwa, Oman

A team of Scottish bird enthusiasts and conservationists headed to an unlikely locale in early March, as they visited Syria in hopes of searching for the last known communities of several endangered birds, as the BBC reported. Syria remains an ornithological enigma; even team leader Martin Scott admitted that “not enough is known about its stunning birdlife.” The little that is known, however, indicates that Syria might be one of the premiere winter nesting spots for migrating birds like the sociable lapwing and the bald ibis, a legendary figure in the birding world with only two known pairs, both living in Syria.

Syrian conservationists and the Syrian Ministry of the Environment hope that the visit by the Scots will help to put their country on the map for its population of wintering birds, and to draw renewed interest in ecotourism. For their part, the visitors hope to impart their own experience in conservation. Scott explains:

We hope to see lots of amazing birds, but more importantly pass on our knowledge and expertise to a nation that hosts some critical areas for wildlife.

This is a key international project. Work has been undertaken in Kazakhstan, Sudan and India on sociable lapwings, now it is Syria’s turn to be in the limelight.

As a project of the UK’s Darwin Initiative, which pairs developing countries with high biodiversity with British experts, the Syria trip should help to raise the profile of the nation that is home to the Euphrates River and steppes filled with legendary migrating birds.

Image: The sociable lapwing is being studied in Syria