By Hana Namrouqa – Apr 22,2018
AMMAN — President of Jordan Environment Union (JEU) Omar Shoshan on Sunday called for “arranging the inner house” of the country’s over 124 environment societies and NGOs to better consolidate efforts that ensure the safety and protection of the environment.
During JEU’s second national annual conference, Shoshan stressed the importance of “having all of Jordan’s environment NGOs and societies on one page” to efficiently identify the Kingdom’s environmental challenges and pressing issues and devise solutions that protect the environment and the public health.
“We are extending today an open invitation to all of the environmental NGOs and societies in every governorate to become active members under the JEU. We are seeking to create environmental justice in every part of the country,” Shoshan said at the opening of the conference.
The JEU president also urged the creation of a strategic partnership between the government — represented by the Ministry of Environment — the Parliament and the private sector.
“We call for setting up a strategic institutional partnership that brings together environment NGOs and societies as well as the government, the Parliament and the private sector to work for addressing the environmental challenges in a comprehensive and integrated approach.
The conference, which brought together representatives of environment societies from all governorates, is held by the JEU in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
It aims to provide a platform for the country’s environmental NGOs to exchange knowledge and expertise in the implementation of projects, secure funding for their projects and explore entrepreneurship opportunities in the environment sector.
Meanwhile, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Deputy Resident Director and Coordinator of Regional Programmes Richard Probst said that the environmental aspect is an integral part of justice.
“We are mistaken if we take justice only as social justice and do not integrate into the social justice also the environmental aspect, environmental justice is a very important aspect of justice. Climate justice is also a very important aspect of justice. Environmental justice usually is on a local level; climate justice is something between the global south and the global north,” Probst said.
Probst noted that environmental injustice is something that , unfortunately, persists in Amman, underlining that environment NGOs and societies across the country provide legitimacy to the JEU to negotiate and to be a “counterpart” to the Environment Ministry and the government as a whole.
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