The natural environment in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) faces significant threats from a number of factors both natural and human-caused, the largest of which is the continued political instability and territorial expansion. Because of this, the natural environment including valuable natural resources such as water and arable land continue to degrade at an astonishing rate. According to studies carried out by the Ministry of Environmental Affairs (MEnA) and the GEF-SGP Palestine Country Programme Strategy, this is mainly caused by many years of negligence that created environmental hazards and practices with detrimental results. Along the same lines, it should be emphasized that there exists a lack of environmental awareness and low standards of environmental education, which forms a notable institutional weakness.
The situation in the city of Ramallah is similar to that elsewhere in the oPt. It should be noted that Palestinians are accustomed to burning solid waste as a means of waste disposal and domestic heating. It is also pertinent to note that recycling of waste in the current political scenario is made virtually impossible for the Palestinian population. In addition, the city?s current infrastructure is not adequate to accommodate the high rate in expansion of the population. It is likewise evident that, despite efforts from government and civil society, the city suffers from lack of central planning including assurances for environmental sustainability or preservation of natural spaces. The oPt is one of the most densely populated regions in the Middle East, and Ramallah is an example about how the problems of pollution and overexploitation of natural resources are affecting the whole country.
Notwithstanding, many local and national authorities in Palestine and internationally view civil society and NGOs participation in environmental governance with a certain degree of suspicion regarding potential political conflicts and are wary of a perceived tendency to oppose economic development in favour of environmental conservation (although a sustainable development approach joins the two).
At Juzoor, we are aware that civil society participation in environmental governance in Palestine remains weak. This is in large part due to the political and economic situation in Palestine taking the forefront in civil society agendas. Despite this, Juzoor finds it imperative to encourage and train the local authorities and the new generations to improve and change the environmental situation.
The key environmental problems that Juzoor wants to address with this proposal are: Climate Change (CC), in order to improve the knowledge about CC and mitigate its impacts, and Energy Efficiency Improvements. These themes are aimed at ensuring environmental sustainability, as it is defined in The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) number 7, as well as aligning with the priorities of GEF-SGP Palestine Country Programme Strategy and the Ministry of Environmental Affairs (MenA) mission.
Juzoor and GEF share the same approach; like GEF, Juzoor believes that when stakeholders (NGOs, CBOs, local governments, etc.) are trying to address a global environmental problem, its solutions can only come from grassroots support and engagement of the concerned populations.
At Juzoor, we strongly believe that Effective Environmental Governance requires the participation and cooperation of all actors ? governments, NGOs, the private sector, civil society and community groups, ordinary citizens ? and needs the realization of a collaborative effort to achieve a sustainable development and environmental improvement. Thus environmental governance constitutes an alternative to the conventional top-down governmental policy-making.This is the reason we want to work closely with the Ramallah Municipality, in order to influence environmental policies at the local level. Our intention is to use this project as a pilot project that can be expanded to more municipalities, creating a citizen-based lobby for the development of an effective and practical, local environmental policy in Palestine.