Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad received Tuesday Abdullah bin Ali Al-Omari, Chairperson of the Environment Authority in the Sultanate of Oman, to discuss boosting cooperation in several environmental issues of mutual interest.
Ali Abu Sunna, the head of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), and a number of the ministry’s leaders attended the meeting which was held at the Environmental Cultural and Educational Center – Cairo House.
Fouad expressed readiness to strengthen bonds of interdependence and cooperation with the Sultanate of Oman in the field of environmental work and transferring Egyptian experiences to the brotherly country in the field of reducing air pollution, protecting the marine environment, and investing in protected areas and other areas of environmental work.
For his part, Al-Omari praised the local and international efforts of the Egyptian Ministry of Environment in the field of environmental work and the ministry’s successful experiences in transforming the environment into investment opportunities.
During the meeting, Fouad reviewed the Ministry’s programs to improve air quality, including Egypt’s successful experience in eliminating the black cloud and transforming ordeal into an economic opportunity by converting rice straw and agricultural waste into several products of economic value such as fertilizers, fodder and others.
Additionally, the minister briefed Al-Omari on the biogas production program and the program to reduce vehicle emissions and control industrial emissions by linking factories to the national network for monitoring instantaneous emissions.
She further explained the ministry’s efforts in developing the protected areas and ways to integrate the local community into the reserves and develop their economic and social levels in a way that contributes to supporting means of protecting natural resources and promoting eco-tourism.
The two sides also discussed ways to invest in the reserves in economic projects compatible with the nature of the reserve and outside the environmental sensitivity areas in the protected areas, including the establishment of a Bedouin tent in the Petrified Forest Reserve to display the environmental and cultural heritage of the South Sinai reserves, which contributes to linking visitors with environmental cultures in the nature reserve.
