Egypt’s Environment Ministry has collaborated with the Egyptian Italian environmental programme to conduct a wide clean-up campaign in Wadi al-Rayan nature reserve in Fayoum, some 100km southwest Cairo.
The campaign aimed at raising local awareness of preserving nature reserves and biodiversity, through actively involving local residents in the management of the reserves.
The campaign featured the participation of young marine scouts and members of the Eco-Tourism Association of Wadi al-Rayan and Lake Qaroun reserves, as well as a number of workers in the local hotel and handicrafts sector, safari organisers and Wadi al-Rayan coffeeshops.
Egypt’s Environment Minister, Yasmine Fuad, said that the campaign aimed at implementing the principle of sustainable management of nature reserves by involving the domestic community.
According to Yusriya Hamed, Director of the Egyptian Italian programme’s Phase III, the campaign included cleaning up the areas of al-Shallalat (the waterfalls), Jabal al-Madura, and Majic Lake, as well as the village of Tunis in Wadi al-Rayan.
She said that the purpose of the programme was to engage local communities in the preservation and sustainable activity in nature reserves, in order for these reserves to achieve revenue that may be used to sustain them and at the same time profit the locals.
Watani International
22 July 2018