The Bibliotheca Alexandrina believes that youth should think of ways and actions needed to secure their future on the planet, because they are the ones who will suffer most if they are not included in discussion and actions regarding the major environmental issues.
The Advisors for Special Projects Office organized the Arab Environmental Youth Convention during the period of 27-31 August 2007, to discuss different environmental problems in the Arab countries.
After following the distant learning course: Program of Preventative Environmental Management given in Arabic via Internet and identifying and studying environmental problems, 200 youth with their teachers, from different Arab countries, such as Emirates, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan were invited to participate in the First Arab Environmental Youth Convention.
As youth are the highest category affected by the consequences of current environmental problems, they were invited to discuss their projects and their views to solve environmental issues. It was a good chance to strengthen the participation of youth in environmental protection and in exchanging their views and projects.
This conference covered the following fields:
- Wastes, 12 projects were proposed
- Water ,11 projects were proposed
- Energy ,5 projects were proposed
- Sustainable development ,9 projects were proposed
- Food and agriculture, 3 projects were proposed
- Climate change, 4 projects were proposed
International scientists were invited as keynote speakers in this conference.
Prof. Mostafa Tolba, Former Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) had a speech about “New in Climate Change “. He has focused his speech on the different causes of climate change and measures that should be taken to prevent it.
Also, Dr. Mossad Ewiss, Head of Youth Committee, UNESCO, had a speech highlighting the importance of water resources.