Arab Environment Watch in 2008: Focus on Science and Development

Any new year is always a good time for reflections and assessments. It has been almost two years since the establishment of this blog and I am very proud to see the increasing interest from readers all over the world. In fact, what pleases me more is the fact that the Arabic platform of this blog is much more popular than the English one, with almost 270,000 hits in the Arabic blog. This shows a high demand for environmental knowledge in the Arab world especially issues related to our common environmental problems and solutions.

This blog has been evolving and changing in perspectives and content. In the past year the focus was on describing best practices and applications of environmental protection in the Arab World. This year will hopefully be the time to stabilize the identity of this blog and enhance the originality and quality of the posts.

I have been thinking over the last couple of weeks of the best approach to enter 2008 in a focused and yet far reaching manner. I had to do some thinking at the level of strategic decision making in the Arab World and its main priorities.

The main conclusion is not a surprise to anyone which is the deteriorating socio-economic conditions in the Arab World, maybe with the exception of the booming oil economies. However, many other political and social pressures are common to all Arab countries from Oman to Morocco.

Many factors contribute to the dismal state of socio-economic and political development of the Arab World. Much emphasis has been placed on issues of democratization, participation and good governance. However, the inability of scientific culture to flourish in the Arab World might be considered as a main reason for the lack of adequate reform. This has been highlighted in the landmark Arab Human Development Report for 2003 entitled "Building a Knowledge Society" which has identified the major obstacles against the progress towards knowledge acquisition and development in the Arab World.

This blog has been created as a platform for reporting on environmental advancements in the Arab World for the Arab and global audience. My focused aim is trying to reflect on the environmental challenges, innovation and creativity in the Arab World, which is always eclipsed by the violence and conflict news. To do this properly, issues of science and development must be integral in the identity of the blog.

In My opinion, the Arab World faces two problems in environmental communication:

1- Communicating the results of global environmental innovations to the Arab audience.

2- Communicating the efforts of Arab environmental protection to the global audience.

Both problems need to be addressed urgently. While some Arab media outlets are trying to present the findings of global environmental innovations to the Arab audience, so little is being done in the opposite direction. This modest blog, based on the volunteer efforts of one writer and researcher will try to highlight news and analysis, research summaries, challenges and results of innovations from the Arab environmental sphere to the people reading this blog whether they are Arabs or global.

I hope this blog will manage to provide a clear linkage between environment, science and development in the Arab World through practical examples and to provide an honest perspective of the Arab World as it is rarely presented in mainstream international media.