Egypt’s Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad, met with Abdul Hakim Al-Waer, the Assistant Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the regional representative of the organization for the Near East and North Africa region. Their meeting focused on enhancing bilateral cooperation in adaptation projects and linking climate change, biodiversity, land use, and local societies.
Fouad expressed her desire to cooperate with the FAO to strengthen the existing partnership in the joint file between the organisation, the ministry, and the Global Environment Facility. She suggested involving the private sector in an adaptation project related to land-use management that supports small farmers and housewives while reducing emissions from the agricultural sector.
Fouad also noted that Egypt is leading the world in linking climate and biodiversity. As part of its presidency of the COP27 Climate Conference, Egypt included a full day of biodiversity for the first time in the history of climate conferences. Additionally, Egypt and Canada are jointly leading negotiations for the global framework for biodiversity at the COP15 Conference on Biological Diversity.
Fouad emphasised that Egypt and the FAO can provide the framework with a great opportunity to formulate an implementation procedure through a project that links climate change, biodiversity, land use, and local communities. This project can help achieve one of the goals of the framework, which is declaring 30% of land and water-protected areas by 2030.
Al-Waer expressed his aspiration for more cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and highlighted the possibility of partnership in promising new areas, including the development of oasis ecosystems, achieving sustainable livelihoods for local communities, reducing food waste, and benefiting from the new phase of the readiness program of the Green Climate Fund for implementing the National Adaptation Plans 2024/2027.
