Jeannie Sowers
Former Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Contact:
Email: jeannie_sowers@hks.harvard.edu
Jeannie Sowers
October 21, 2009
Damietta Mobilizes for Its Environment
Journal Article, Middle East Report Online
By Jeannie Sowers, Former Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative and Sharif Elmusa
In 2008, Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Damietta saw escalating protest against EAgrium, a Canadian consortium building a large fertilizer complex in Ra's al-Barr. Ra's al-Barr sits at the end of an estuary, where the Damietta branch of the Nile River joins the Mediterranean. It is a prime destination for vacationing Egyptians in the summertime and the location of the year-round residences of the Damiettan elite. Fishermen ply the waters offshore. When plans for the fertilizer complex were announced, a coalition of locals feared that all three sources of income -- tourism, real estate and fishing -- would be jeopardized by emissions into the air and water. As summer temperatures climbed and the protests mounted, the government found itself caught between its contractual obligations to international investors and a well-organized local movement opposed to the project on both environmental and developmental grounds.
May 5, 2010
Workshop Focuses on Climate Adaptation, Water Conservation in Middle East and North Africa
News
By Jeannie Sowers, Former Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
DURHAM, N.C. – The Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University co-sponsored a two-day closed workshop, “Climate Adaptation in the Middle East and North Africa: Challenges and Opportunities,” May 3 and 4 at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School
September 2010
Climate Change Adaptation in the Middle East and North Africa
Working Paper
By Jeannie Sowers, Former Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
This paper argues that in order to mitigate the effects of human-induced climate change, policy makers must actively remove obstacles to local mobilization of resources, allow private sector participation under adequate and transparent regulation, and provide a supportive context for community-level adaptations.
