Egyptian National IGBP Committee

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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
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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
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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
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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
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Activities
Egyptian National IGBP Committee

• Our Website
• www.scope.eg.net

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Activities
Egyptian National IGBP Committee

• Our Newsletter
• First Issue

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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
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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.

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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 .

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