UN Hopes to Save Gaza Valley

A general view shows Gaza City September 2, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/File Photo
A general view shows Gaza City September 2, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/File Photo
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UN Hopes to Save Gaza Valley

A general view shows Gaza City September 2, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/File Photo
A general view shows Gaza City September 2, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem/File Photo

The United Nations is set to begin the restoration of a historic valley in the Palestinian Gaza Strip next month, hoping to transform it from a landfill and sewage dump into a vibrant nature reserve in a planned $66 million project.

The Gaza Valley, home to a variety of plants and animals, is one of the largest wetland areas in the territory.

It stretches 105 kms (65 miles) from the Israeli Negev desert up to southern Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and for nine kms (5.5 miles) across the Gaza Strip to the Mediterranean sea.

But over the past few decades, despite the Palestinians proclaiming the valley a nature reserve in the 1990s, it has become badly polluted. With rubbish piling up and the stench of sewage flowing through it, residents have kept away.

In an attempt to save it, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has put together the $66 million project plan, though it has not yet secured the entire funding.

"It is a full project to develop this site and to turn it from an unhealthy wastewater dump into a place people of Gaza can visit and into a tourist site," Reuters quoted Mohammed Abu Shaaban, the UNDP's project coordinator, as saying.

The two-phase project will take several years to complete, said Abu Shaaban. The first funds to come through, $1.3 million from Belgium, will go towards the initial cleanup which is expected to take around four months.

"In March we will start removing the solid waste and the concrete and debris in the Wadi (valley), opening the route, doing the soil reclamation and planting many trees," said Abu Shaaban.

For the past few months, a new water treatment station in central Gaza has allowed treated water to flow into the valley, improving the habitat of dozens of species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

In the longer term, the restoration also aims to benefit the people of Gaza, with camping sites, cafes and educational and recreational centers along the valley route.

"Several tourist and economic centers will be built and will provide jobs for unemployed people," said Marwan Hamad, head of Zahra City Council, whose office is involved in the development.

On Sunday, 40 activists visited the site in support of the project. "We came from all over the Gaza Strip to tell the people that Gaza valley is being transformed and it will be restored as a nature reserve," said Mohammad Aburjaila, 26.



Greece to Create New Marine Reserves to Protect Underwater Wildlife

Greece banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs. Handout / Under the Pole/AFP
Greece banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs. Handout / Under the Pole/AFP
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Greece to Create New Marine Reserves to Protect Underwater Wildlife

Greece banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs. Handout / Under the Pole/AFP
Greece banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs. Handout / Under the Pole/AFP

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday said that his government was creating two new protected marine areas, fulfilling a promise he made at a United Nations conference on the oceans in June.

The new protected areas -- in the Ionian Sea and in the Southern Cyclades in the Aegean Sea -- would be "among the largest marine protected areas in the entire Mediterranean", he said in a video message in English.

The prime minister said that the "hugely damaging practice of bottom trawling" by commercial fishing boats would be banned within the new marine reserves and in all Greece's marine protected areas by 2030, making it the first country in Europe to take such a significant step in preservation, reported AFP.

Fishing is generally allowed in protected marine areas worldwide, even by trawlers which scrape the seabed with a huge funnel-shaped net, to devastating effect.

Mitsotakis said that he had "made a promise to honor (Greece's) unique marine heritage" at last month's UN Oceans Conference in southern France, "and to protect it for generations to come".

"Today I am delivering on that promise with the establishment of two new marine national parks... because when we protect our ocean, we protect our own future."

Greece is located in the eastern Mediterranean and has around 13,600 kilometers (8,450 miles) of coastline and thousands of islands.

Greece, Brazil and Spain all used the UN conference in Nice, to announce new protected marine reserves and measures to ban bottom trawling, in order to better protect marine wildlife.

Mitsotakis said that the size of the new Greek marine reserves "will enable us to achieve the goal of protecting 30 percent of our territorial waters by 2030".

He said that the government would work with "local communities, local fishermen, scientists (and) global partners (to) make these parks examples of what is possible".

The oceans are 'life itself'

In May, Athens banned bottom trawling in the waters of the Fournoi Korseon island chain in the Aegean to protect recently discovered coral reefs that are exceptionally rich in marine wildlife.

Neighboring Türkiye, whose western coast is close to the Aegean islands, responded to Monday's announcement by criticizing such "unilateral action".

"International maritime law encourages cooperation between the coastal states of these seas, including on environmental issues," the foreign ministry in Ankara said.

It said that Türkiye was willing to cooperate with Greece and would soon announce its own plans to protect maritime areas.

Greece and Türkiye, both members of NATO, have historical disputes over maritime boundaries in the Aegean Sea.

They signed an agreement in 2023 aimed at easing tensions.

Mitsotakis said that "Ocean", a new documentary by British natural history broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, had inspired Greece to accelerate efforts to protect life below the waves.

"Ocean", which features spectacular footage of undersea habitats and marine life, emphasizes the importance of healthy seas for tackling climate change and the current sweeping loss of wild species across the planet.

Mitsotakis said "Ocean" showed that the sea was "not just beautiful scenery".

"It is life itself. Delicate. Powerful. And under threat."