Egypt
CairObserver
Arabist.net
- Think Green Vs. Think Development
Egypt Today (Farida Helmy) Egypt is a naturalist’s dream. With oceans, oases, deserts and mountains a plenty, you would think eco-tourism would be big here. Much of the nation’s touristic income, however, comes from traditional, block hotel rooms...
- Bbc Video About Faiyum Development Plans
BBC News Showing both environmentalist and developer perspectives in the row over whether a beautiful area of the Faiyum, both archaeologically and environmentally unique, should be developed as a tourist resort. There is a lot of footage of the lovely...
- Petition To Stop The Destruction Of The Lake Qarun Protected Area
PetitionOnline Thanks to Per Storemyr for sending this to me - a petition for the protection of the priceless antiquities in the Lake Qarun area of the Faiyum depression, to the southwest of Cairo. The petition can be viewed and signed above. They also...
- Egypt’s Tourism Minister Left Troubling Situation
bikyamasr Egypt’s former tourism minister, who was sentenced to five years in prison last week, has left a number of troubling business deals in his wake, including Porto Fayoum, a massive tourism development in a proposed world heritage site in Egypt’s...
- Le 20 Billion For Developing Tourism Movement In Al-fayoum
Egypt State Information Service During his meeting in Tourism, Media and Culture Committee of People's Assembly on 17/5/2008, Tourism Minister Zoheir Grana announced that the plan of developing the tourism movement in Al-Fayoum governorate is based...
Egypt
More re Faiyum archaeology and ecology under threat
CairObserver
Fayoum is a lush area around an ancient sea in the desert 130 kilometers south of Cairo. There is a small city and several villages. There are also natural reserves and bird areas, an artist village and Egypt’s caricature museum. This sounds like Fayoum has enough uniqueness and attractions to be the star of Egypt’s next tourism campaign. Alas, this is not what the government thinks mainly because there is no big five-star hotel development copy and pasted from another location. So Mubarak’s government decided to sell the natural reserve, legally a protected area, to Amer Group, a massive developer who builds the worst of neolibralism from resorts to malls. The super rich developer has a 99-year leasehold on the land for $28,000/year! that comes down to 1 cents per square meter. If this isn’t a clear case of corruption I am not sure what is.
Arabist.net
Environmentalists currently represent a small subsection of activists in Egypt, but like everybody else they've received a boost from the revolution, as well as more problems to deal with. The former comes in the sense that people are generally more willing to pay attention to the kind of political, economic, ecological and community problems environmentalism attempt to deal with — everyone is more empowered and has a great sense of community belonging. Yet, at the same time, the partial collapse of the state has led to many abuses (most notably illegal construction) and many people prioritize security or party politics ahead of environmentalism.
- Think Green Vs. Think Development
Egypt Today (Farida Helmy) Egypt is a naturalist’s dream. With oceans, oases, deserts and mountains a plenty, you would think eco-tourism would be big here. Much of the nation’s touristic income, however, comes from traditional, block hotel rooms...
- Bbc Video About Faiyum Development Plans
BBC News Showing both environmentalist and developer perspectives in the row over whether a beautiful area of the Faiyum, both archaeologically and environmentally unique, should be developed as a tourist resort. There is a lot of footage of the lovely...
- Petition To Stop The Destruction Of The Lake Qarun Protected Area
PetitionOnline Thanks to Per Storemyr for sending this to me - a petition for the protection of the priceless antiquities in the Lake Qarun area of the Faiyum depression, to the southwest of Cairo. The petition can be viewed and signed above. They also...
- Egypt’s Tourism Minister Left Troubling Situation
bikyamasr Egypt’s former tourism minister, who was sentenced to five years in prison last week, has left a number of troubling business deals in his wake, including Porto Fayoum, a massive tourism development in a proposed world heritage site in Egypt’s...
- Le 20 Billion For Developing Tourism Movement In Al-fayoum
Egypt State Information Service During his meeting in Tourism, Media and Culture Committee of People's Assembly on 17/5/2008, Tourism Minister Zoheir Grana announced that the plan of developing the tourism movement in Al-Fayoum governorate is based...