Environmental Police in Jordan...soon!

One of the oldest and wildest dreams for environmentalists in Jordan is about to materialize. Jordan is now in the process of establishing a special "Environmental Police Department" to "look after" all violators of environmental integrity in the country.

Although the process is still on paper, but the political will is there. A special committee composed of the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Public Security Department and the Royal Soceity for the Conservation of Nature has been meeting for several weeks to develop a legislative and administrative framework for the environmental police. The plan is now ready to take-off and the first impressions are ...impressive!

According to sources in the committee, the environmental police will be a special department in the Police with around 750 staff. The mandate will be strong and comprehensive, since the environmental police department will be entrusted with many tasks including the inspecting factories, industrial zones, and picnic areas and fining violators of environmental laws.

And if you do have the bad habit of throwing items out of your car, you must know that the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) called on the Traffic Department to increase the fine imposed on motorists who discard litter onto the streets. Currently, the fine for this violation ranges from JD10-20, but GAM has asked the department to increase the penalty to JD50.

We have worked a lot in the context of environmental awareness but then realized that awareness is useless without fines. It is thew old "twinning" of the stick and carrot.