Environmental activist Abdulmajid Dbar believes the stalled democratic transition in Tunisia has led to environmental crimes that will have devastating long-term effects.
How would you assess the environmental situation since the revolution?
Environmental activist Abdulmajid Dbar believes the stalled democratic transition in Tunisia has led to environmental crimes that will have devastating long-term effects.
How would you assess the environmental situation since the revolution?
The major problem since the revolution has been the absence of control and of environmental institutions, such as the Ministry of Environment and the Environmental Protection Agency. This has contributed to the rise of environmental crimes, such as the felling of trees in nature reserves and arson in many areas in the country. Although they are rare, 2,024 acacia trees were cut down and removed from the Bouhdma nature reserve, which is the only Mediterranean forest that hosts acacia trees.
Before the revolution, such crimes did not occur because access to these areas was restricted, and fines were imposed on anyone who cut down trees. The acacia tree is part of Tunisia’s heritage, so it should be protected, but unfortunately it is cut down and replaced by eucalyptus trees from Australia.
What about illegal hunting after the revolution?
Before the revolution, 23,000 Tunisians held hunting licenses but since the revolution, only 8,000 more have been issued, even though the number of hunters has dramatically increased. The implication is that most of them are unlicensed.
The key problem in this respect is that since 1987—i.e., since Ben Ali came to power—some Gulf princes, especially from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been visiting our country to hunt in the Tunisian desert. This practice was banned during Bourguiba’s rule.
What is strange is that these princes spent the longest time, 94 days, in the Tunisian desert during Ennahda’s rule [post-revolution]. They stayed in tents provided with state-of-the-art equipment and brought with them everything they needed, including food and drinks, which means that Tunisia did not benefit from them at all. On the contrary, they damaged Tunisia’s wildlife.
These princes hunted bustards, which are endangered birds. They commit this crime out of their belief that the bitter flesh of these birds is an aphrodisiac, although this has not been scientifically verified. They also hunt the rare antelope, which has led to a decline in their number in the Tunisian desert. This has forced the government to import this species from the United States at high prices, amounting to 150,000 dinars (US $96,600) for each antelope.
What are, in your opinion, the solutions to illegal hunting?
I am going to file a case against these Gulf princes and look for environmental societies abroad to help me. We organized a sit-in in front of the Qatari embassy in Tunis to denounce these barbaric practices and demand that they respect international conventions on hunting.
The environmental societies have communicated with many ministries, as well as the presidency and the Constituent Assembly, and condemned the presence of hunting camps in southern Tunisia and in the Makhrouka reserve in the Tunisian desert, which are illegal and breach international conventions.
The wildlife in the south is in danger, and this disrespect for the law endangers many species. For example, bustard numbers have decreased from 1,300 in 1979 to 100 now due to illegal hunting, especially since, as I mentioned above, the Gulf’s rich visit the Tunisian desert every year. Some people are fond of saying that the democratic transition track in Tunisia is disrupted, but the environmental one is also obstructed. The Tunisian environment is living through its worst times since the revolution.
How do you assess the way the Tunisian government and the Ministry of Environment in particular handle environmental problems?
The way the current government is handling this issue is not different from how it was handled during Ben Ali’s regime. Their sole goal is to find financial resources for the state, even at the expense of the environment, the people’s health, and our natural resources. These things were sold under Ben Ali; the rest will be sold under the current troika government.
