For his part, the President of the General Assembly, Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic, called for the protection of resources such as timber, minerals, water, fish and ivory, which are vulnerable to illegal exploitation in conflict situations.
Describing the environment as the "unpublicized victim of war," the Executive Director of U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Toepfer, said that although mankind had always counted its war casualties in terms of dead and wounded soldiers and civilians, the environment was a bigger casualty, due to damage done to air, water and land, unregulated plunder of natural resources.
Since 1999, he noted, UNEP had participated in a number of monitoring and assessment missions. The UNEP has also dispatched a mission to Afghanistan to pinpoint areas where degradation occurred and is preparing a desk study on the Palestinian Territories, which will identify the priorities for short- and long-term environmental rehabilitation. Considering all of these efforts, one is still forced to ask the question: will this very special ecological environmental habitat in Palestine ever recover?; The insects, the birds, the fish, the flowers, the plants and the mammals.
The Israeli occupation is not only killing the Palestine human population, but also the ancient Palestinian ecological habitat, life it self.
Eve Gardens
Palestine Chronicle http://palestinechronicle.com
Redistributed via Press International News Agency (PINA).
Describing the environment as the "unpublicized victim of war," the Executive Director of U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Toepfer, said that although mankind had always counted its war casualties in terms of dead and wounded soldiers and civilians, the environment was a bigger casualty, due to damage done to air, water and land, unregulated plunder of natural resources.
Since 1999, he noted, UNEP had participated in a number of monitoring and assessment missions. The UNEP has also dispatched a mission to Afghanistan to pinpoint areas where degradation occurred and is preparing a desk study on the Palestinian Territories, which will identify the priorities for short- and long-term environmental rehabilitation. Considering all of these efforts, one is still forced to ask the question: will this very special ecological environmental habitat in Palestine ever recover?; The insects, the birds, the fish, the flowers, the plants and the mammals.
The Israeli occupation is not only killing the Palestine human population, but also the ancient Palestinian ecological habitat, life it self.
Eve Gardens
Palestine Chronicle http://palestinechronicle.com
Redistributed via Press International News Agency (PINA).