By Raed El Rafei
Daily Star staff
Saturday, June 17, 2006

BEIRUT: Arab countries should implement policies that answer the expectations of the vast majority of Arab nationals who are demanding more action to protect the environment, according to environmentalists and heads of regional organizations Friday.

A regional conference on "Arab Public Opinion and the Environment" was organized by Pan-Arab Environment and Development magazine and supported by the OPEC Fund for International Development and the Arab League. The conference discussed a broad survey, which, for the first time, tackled people's views on the state of the environment, environmental problems and ways to preserve natural resources in 18 Arab states.

Presenting the results of the survey carried out by the magazine and evaluated by a specialized research center, Najib Saab, publisher and editor in chief of the Lebanese-based magazine, said: "More than 95 percent of Arabs think their countries should do more to protect the environment."

The survey took place between November 2005 and March 2006 based on a final sample of around 4,000 forms filled mostly by educated Arabs aged between 20 and 40.

According to this poll, 60 percent of the people found that the state of the environment in their country was getting worse. Saab said the negative evaluation of the state of the environment increased with the increase in income and education.

The main source of environmental information was newspapers, followed by television, specialized magazines and the Internet, Saab said.

Analyzing the results of the survey, Mustafa Tolba, leading environmental expert and head of the International Center for Environment and Development, said the poll was important in shedding light on people's views. He added, however, a large section of the Arab population, mainly illiterates, were overlooked by the study.

"While 95 percent said they were willing to comply with tough environmental legislation, only 68 percent were willing to pay taxes to help protect the environment," the results of the study said.

The four main causes of environmental deterioration were: nonadherence to legislation, inadequate awareness programs, bad environmental management and weak environment protection agencies, according to respondents.

As for the most alarming environmental problems, air pollution scored the highest, as 80 percent of the total considered it a major problem, while hazardous waste scored second, health hazards from pesticides and fertilizers third, followed by weak environmental awareness and solid waste.

For Lebanese interviewees, 71 percent considered that environmental conditions had deteriorated in the past 10 years and 75 percent said they were ready to volunteer in environmental associations.

Following the discussion of the poll, participants talked about "the national, regional and international response to public demands," stressing the gap between Arab countries' commitments to international agreements on the environment and the reality on the ground.

Adnan Badran, former Jordanian premier and president of the Arab Academy of Sciences, said "many legislations related to the environment in developing countries remained unimplemented."

The vice chairman of the Gulf Countries Council, Abdullah al-Hachem stressed the importance of environmental education over regulations and laws in the environment's preservation.

Suleiman al-Harbish, director of the OPEC Fund, said oil producers were investing major efforts to keep their production "as clean as possible."

On the relation between the media and the environment, editors in chief from leading Arab newspapers said environmental topics should become part of daily political, economic and social reports and not confined to specialized pages.

"I expect that environmental issues would gradually compete with economic and political news; especially since they relate to people's daily lives," said Oussama Saraya, editor in chief of Egyptian daily Al-Ahram.

Edmond Saab, An-Nahar's executive editor in chief, said that to cover environmental issues, newspapers had to face high pressure from powerful and influential polluters, adding that only "free and credible media can face polluters."

The last part of the conference was devoted to the role of advertisement in raising awareness about the environment, with Mustafa Assad, CEO of Publicis.Graphics, focusing on the importance of advertising agencies in advocating for a better environment.

"Environmental issues should be implemented in every proposal, every business plan and every corporate and social responsibility program," Assad said.

The conference will continue on Saturday with environmental organizations and the public and with the announcement of the establishment of the Arab Environmental Forum.