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Egyptian National IGBP Committee

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Title: Egyptian National IGBP Committee


1
IGBP National Committee activities in
Egypt By Dr. Gehad Abu-el-Ata (Cairo
University) Member, IGBP National Committee
Egyptian National IGBP Committee
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
Regional Workshop - Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) Sustainable Water and Land Management in
Semi-Arid Regions Cairo, Egypt , 20-21 November
2008
2
Objectives
  • Hold workshops on various environmental issues.
  • Communicate with the scientific community
    through the website www.scope.eg.net
  • Exchange views with the scientific community
    through a non-periodical newsletter for SCOPE
    IGBP
  • Collaborating efforts with concerned committees
    and organizations for SCOPE IGBP in the Arab
    region
  • Publish Arabic versions of the SCOPE IGBP
    publications
  • Discuss and establish directories for
    Environmental Scientists, Research and
    Development activities in Egypt
  • Set training programs for young scientists in
    environmental sciences
  • Inform concerned organizations and personnel
    about new approaches in Global change
  • Encourage and guide young researchers in
    Environmental science, and on how to participate
    in international activities

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
3
Targets
  • Hold five workshops in Upper Egypt and the
    Delta on Global Change and its impact on the
    Egyptian Environment.
  • Establish a website (Arabic English) for
    SCOPE and IGBP under the website of National
    Committees / Academy of Scientific Research and
    Technology (EGYPT) www.scope.eg.net
  • Issue a non-periodical newsletter for SCOPE
    IGBP (English Arabic)
  • Start formation of a committee for SCOPE IGBP
    in the Arab region in collaboration with
    concerned organizations
  • Translate some of SCOPE IGBP publications
    into Arabic
  • Issue directories for Environmental Scientists,
    Research and Development activities in Egypt
  • Set training programs for young scientists in
    environmental sciences
  • Inform Environmentalists about all new
    approaches in Global change
  • Encourage young researchers in Environmental
    science, and guide them on how to participate in
    international activities

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
4
Members
  • Dr. Mohammed Saber (Chairman)
    Environmental Biotechnology
  • Dr. Magdy Attia ( )
    Agriculture
  • Dr. Ahmed Farghaly
    Environmental Accounting
  • Dr. Ahmed Maher Abdel-raouf
    Environmental Engineering
  • Dr. Ismail H. Al-Bagoury
    Land and Water Conservation
  • Dr. Inas I. Al-Sheokh
    Environmental Medicine
  • Dr. Gehad A. Abo El-Ata
    Environmental Medicine
  • Dr. Samir I. Ghabour
    Zoology
  • Dr. Diaa El-Deen A. Al-Kousy
    Water Resource Management
  • Dr. Eessam El-Henawy
    Soil
  • Dr. Ferial Morsy Al-Bedaiwy
    Geology
  • Dr. Fawkia Labib Bahna
    Soil
  • Dr. Magdy Tawfik Khalil
    Aquatic Biology
  • Dr. Moustafa Hassan Helal
    Soil
  • Dr. Nagwa Abdel-Rahim Kamel
    Information and Communication
  • Dr. Salah Nasr Ayaad
    Science

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
5
Activities
Egyptian National IGBP Committee
  • Our Website
  • www.scope.eg.net

6
Activities
Egyptian National IGBP Committee
  • Our Newsletter
  • First Issue

7
Activities
  • The 1st Symposium on global change and its effect
    on Egypt
  • Suez Canal University, Ismailia, 14th September
    2004
  • The 1st Symposium, on global change and its
    effect on Egypt, organized by SCOPE IGBP
    National Committee was held in Suez Canal
    University on 14th September 2004 under the
    auspices of Excellences Prof. Dr. Amr Salama,
    Minster of High Education and Scientific Research
    and General Eng., Magid George State Minster of
    Environmental Affairs and Generall Sabri El-Adawi
    Governor of Isamaelia. Prof. Dr. Fawzi El-Refaie
    President of ASRT, and Prof. Dr, Farouk
    Abd-el-Kader President of Suez Canal University
    chaired the symposium. Prof. Dr. Mohamed Saber,
    Chairman of Egyptian SCOPE IGBP committee acted
    as secretary general of the symposium. Two
    hundred environmental scientists from
    universities and research institutions as well as
    representatives from mass media, environmental
    executives and NGO members in the region attended
    the symposium. The program of the symposium, in
    two sessions, covered Change in Atmosphere
    Ecosystem, Change in Aquatic Ecosystem, Change in
    Land Ecosystem, interactions Between Aquatic and
    Land Ecosystems, Interactions Between Land,
    Atmosphere and Ocean Ecosystems and Human
    dimensions. The 3rd Session was devoted to open
    discussion.
  • Major Findings and outreach
  • Monitoring environmental changes occurring in
    terrestrial, aquatic and atmosphere ecosystems in
    Egypt.
  • Setting short and long-term national strategy to
    combat and mitigate adverse impacts of global
    change on Egyptian environment. A new established
    national authority would implement the strategy.
  • Developing a national network on research
    priorities in the field of global change and its
    effect on environment.
  • Endorse knowledge and information exchange
    between Egyptian institutions and other
    interested national and international
    organizations.
  • Focus on socio-economic aspects in research
    dealing with the consequences of global change on
    environment.
  • Strengthen the efforts of mass media in the
    dissemination of popular information and
    knowledge on global change and its expected
    consequences on environment.
  • Organizing local, regional and international
    workshops, symposiums and conferences on the
    impacts of global change on environment.
  • Limiting new projects in industrial and urban
    areas, when pollutants in the atmosphere,
    particularly carbon dioxide, exceeds
    international safe levels.
  • Assessing environmental impacts in tourist
    regions, particularly on Egyptian shores.
  • Conserving Egyptian biodiversity from the
    expected adverse impacts of global change.
  • Considering the adverse impacts of global change
    on river Nile in the national plan of water use
    in Egypt.
  • Enhancing tree cultivation everywhere.
  • Start disseminating renewable sources of energy
    with low pollutant emissions.

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
  • Our Symposia
  • First Symposium

8
Activities
  • The 2nd Symposium on global change and its effect
    on Egypt
  • Mansoura University, Mansoura, 27th December 2005
  • The 2nd Symposium, on global change and its
    effect on the environment in Egypt, organized by
    SCOPE IGBP National Committee will be held in
    Mansoura University on 27th December 2005 under
    the auspices of HE. Minster of High Education and
    Scientific Research and HE. State Minster of
    Environmental Affairs and H.E. Governor of
    Dakahlia. HE President of ASRT and H.E. President
    of Mansoura University will chair the symposium.
    The Secretary general will be Prof. Dr. Mohamed
    Saber, Chairman of Egyptian SCOPE IGBP
    committee. The symposium will be attended by 250
    of environmental scientists from universities and
    research institutions, mass media, environmental
    executives and NGO members in the region. The
    program of the symposium, in two sessions, will
    be cover some biological aspects related to
    global change. The 3rd Session will be devoted to
    open discussion.
  • Major Findings and outreach
  • Development of the existing natural reserves is
    very vital for the sake of conservation and
    sustainable use of biodiversity.
  • Development of the national gene bank in Egypt,
    and encourage the establishment of other gene
    banks allover Egypt.
  • Enforcement of national and international
    environmental legislations concerning
    biodiversity.
  • Conserving endangered species
  • Raising the environmental awareness in field of
    biodiversity in targeted groups.
  • Considering socio-economic aspects in the use of
    biodiversity.
  • Environmental accounting should be considered as
    a very useful tool to achieve sustainable use of
    biodiversity
  • Establishment of a data base as well as a
    registry for biodiversity in Egypt.
  • Planting and executing RD a strategy and action
    plans in the different research institutions and
    universities in biodiversity and bioinformatics
    fields as well.

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
  • Our Symposia
  • Second Symposium

9
Activities
  • Acute Air Pollution Episode (Black Smug)
  • Academy for Scientific Research and Technology,
    Cairo, .. 2008
  • The 3rd Symposium, on .
  • Major Findings and outreach
  • Development .

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
  • Our Symposia
  • Third Symposium

10
Activities
  • Academy of Scientific Research and Technology
    (ASRT), Cairo
  • National Research Center (NRC) , Behos Street,
    Dokki, Cairo
  • Agriculture Research Center,(AGR) EL-Gamma
    Street , Giza
  • Desert Research Institute. Mataria, Cairo
  • National Oceanography Research Institute,
    Alexandria
  • Water Research Institute, Katater-el-Khayria ,
    Qualubia
  • Faculties of Science and Faculties of
    Agriculture in different universities
  • Egyptian Environmental Affairs Authority (EEAA)
    Maadi, Helwan
  • Ministry of Agriculture, Dokki , Cairo
  • Ministry of Water Resources Irrigation, Cairo

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
  • Connections

11
Recent RD outputs in Geoshere and Biosphere in
Egypt
  • Egypt emits moderately few greenhouse gases
    compared to numerous other nations 0.34 of
    total worldwide fossil fuel emissions (0.36
    tons/per capita).
  • Egypt is the 15th most populated country in the
    world and extremely susceptible to negative
    environmental penalty of global change that would
    worsen existing problems and intimidate to
    overwhelm the country, which already is worried
    by population pressure and resource shortage.
  • Imperative belongings of global change comprise
    water scarcity, food insufficiency, loss of
    biodiversity, sea level rise, and new pressures
    on human health.

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
12
Recent RD outputs in Geoshere and Biosphere in
Egypt
Climate
Egyptian National IGBP Committee
  • A mean surface temperature climb has been
    evidenced over some Egyptian regions in the last
    decade and future increase ranging between 0.01
    to 0.04C annually have been predicated.
  • The temperature rise is expected to reach
    around 4C by the year 2060.
  • If current trends in greenhouse gas emissions
    persist, global temperatures will rise faster
    over the 21st century than during the last 10,000
    years and annual precipitation will decline by 10
    to 40 over much of Egypt by 2100. This, in
    combination with increased evaporation, will
    increase the frequency and severity of droughts.

13
Recent RD outputs in Geoshere and Biosphere in
Egypt
Water Scarcity
Egyptian National IGBP Committee
  • It is likely that the first impacts of global
    change in Egypt will be experience at the level
    of water resources.
  • Water is already a incomplete resource in
    Egypt, with per capita share just below 1000 m3
    annually and is thus at the edge of the so-called
    poverty line.
  • By 2050, global change is likely to augment
    water demand by an average of 5 .

14
Recent RD outputs in Geoshere and Biosphere in
Egypt
Agriculture
  • Hotter and drier circumstances would broaden the
    area apt to desertification northwards into new
    areas. Desertification would also be provoked by
    increases in erosion and lessening in soil
    fertility. The economic and human costs of an
    increase in desertification would be marvelous.
  • Major sea level rises along the Mediterranean
    shoreline could brush away about one-quarter of
    the agricultural land of the delta and displace
    millions of people. Productive land in coastal
    areas may also be lost through flooding, saline
    intrusion and water-logging. Agricultural
    production might cease altogether over an area
    extending 20 km inland.

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
15
Recent RD outputs in Geoshere and Biosphere in
Egypt
Agriculture
Expected decrease in crop harvests in major
Egyptian crops as a result of global change by
the year 2050
  • Probable decrease in crop harvests in key
    Egyptian crops as a result of global change by
    the year 2050 sufficiency is predictable to
    decline by 10-30 due to increases in
    temperature, precipitation, evaporation /
    aspiration, ultraviolet radiation, CO2 levels,
    and the occurrence of pests and diseases.
  • Livestock production would also suffer due to
    reduced land quality and land availability.

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
16
Recent RD outputs in Geoshere and Biosphere in
Egypt
Biodiversity
  • Global changes will reshape the main habitats in
    Egypt.
  • Although Egypt is either arid or semi-arid, its
    exceptionally varied eco-zones subsume great
    diversity of habitats, fauna and flora, despite
    overall low species numbers. These ecosystems and
    habitats must be uphold to safeguard biodiversity
    and, inversely, species must be protected in
    order to conserve the ecosystems and habitats.
  • As in agriculture, different wild species of
    plants and animals will act in a different way to
    global change. Some are more supple than others
    and may manage to migrate northwards.
  • Northern coastal and low-lying areas rich in
    species and subsuming mangroves and natural reefs
    that are among the richest in the world in terms
    of biodiversity will be injured by rises in sea
    level and population.

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
17
Recent RD outputs in Geoshere and Biosphere in
Egypt
Biodiversity
  • The associated immigration of species to new
    areas will cause harsh socio-economic problems.
    Climate change will also crash marine habitats in
    a complex and interactive way.
  • In the old valley and delta habitats, where more
    than 95 of Egyptians live, flooding will
    increase soluble salt content up to 1500 ppm in
    ground water, adversely impacting the inhabitants
    and biodiversity. As a result of sea level rise
    in the delta, it is expected that some damage
    will affect the surrounding areas adjacent to the
    Egyptian northern lakes, e.g., El-Manzala Lake.
  • In Sinai and eastern desert habitats, marginal
    pasture areas will be exaggerated by expected
    reduced precipitation, and many cultivated areas
    will be prone to desertification due to water
    deficiency. At high altitudes, an anticipated
    increase in rainfall might have some minor
    positive effects on natural vegetation.
  • In the Red Sea, a northward shift of the rain
    belt would rouse primary productivity in some
    habitats, but the reefs would be negatively
    pretentious. Mangrove growth, however, would be
    preferential by temperature rise and increased
    precipitation.
  • In the western desert and the southern valley
    habitats, the expected rise in temperature will
    add to the water requirements of field crops and
    fruit trees, and a considerable number of the
    currently endangered species might be misplaced
    as coastal communities are lost and native
    communities invaded by competitors.

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
18
Recent RD outputs in Geoshere and Biosphere in
Egypt
Sea Level Rise
  • Coastlines and the northern delta are
    particularly susceptible to global change.
    Climate change will most certainly hurry coastal
    erosion. Large areas of farmland behind
    Alexandria and in the mid-delta are already below
    sea level and hence vulnerable to flooding and
    underground salt water intrusion that would cause
    catastrophic socioeconomic losses and large-scale
    population displacement.
  • Wetland sites will face the dual threats of
    drying out and being inundated by seawater. Up to
    85 of wetland sites in Egypt could disappear
    with a 3 to 4 C rise in temperatures, which also
    would damage food plants and reduce waterfowl and
    fish populations. Fisheries and tourism are thus
    two additional economic activities that stand to
    be negatively impacted by global change.
  • A 0.5 meter sea level rise in the delta would
    cause migration of more than two million people,
    loss of more than 214,000 jobs and a value loss
    of more than 40 billion.
  • A 1 meter rise in sea level could lead Egypt to
    loose one percent of its land, displacing tens of
    millions of people and endangering the food
    supplies of many more.

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
19
Recent RD outputs in Geoshere and Biosphere in
Egypt
Health Impacts
  • The most straight health impacts in Egypt will
    be an increase in the incidence of asthma as
    higher temperatures will result in even more
    stern urban air pollution.
  • Higher temperatures would also increase the
    transmission and severity of many infectious
    diseases.
  • More frequent heat waves are predicted to result
    in thousands of extra deaths from cardiovascular
    and respiratory illness. There could also be
    deaths and injuries from extreme weather events
    (storms, heat waves).
  • Food- and waterborne infective agents causing
    diarrhea and dysenteric infections are likely to
    spread more readily in warmer and wetter
    conditions.
  • Deterioration of freshwater quality would reduce
    health standards and worsen epidemics. Reductions
    in food security would increase the risks of
    malnutrition and hunger for millions in Egypt..

Egyptian National IGBP Committee
20
IGBP
Thank You
Egyptian National IGBP Committee
www.scope.eg.net
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