Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel s environment reporter.
Buildings under construction in Mishor Adumim, an Israeli industrial zone adjacent to the settlement of Ma ale Adumim, in the West Bank, east of Jerusalem, on June 16, 2020. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed Sunday to review controversial plans for a waste to energy incinerator in the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, near Jerusalem, after a meeting requested by the city’s mayor, Benny Kashriel.
Netanyahu ordered the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee, to be headed by Prime Minister’s Office Secretary Tzachi Braverman, and to include representatives from the ministries of finance, health and environmental protection, as well as from the Ma’ale Adumim local council and the Binyamin Regional Council.
Protected areas make over 20% of Belarusian territory
Archive photo
MINSK, 2 February (BelTA) – Protected areas occupy more than 20% of the territory of Belarus, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry.
“In 2018-2020, the size of specially protected natural areas increased by 67,500 hectares to 1.8 million hectares, or 9% of the territory of Belarus. The total area of all protected areas in Belarus (specially protected areas, habitats of endangered species, rare biotopes) is estimated to equal 22% of the country s territory. This level is higher than in Ukraine (17%), Lithuania and Latvia (18%),” the press service said.
Belarus pays special attention to restoration of disrupted ecosystems. “Thanks to international technical assistance, Belarus rewetted more than 15,000 hectares of peatlands in the past three years. Plans are in place to rehabilitate over 5,000 hectares of peatlands in 2021. As a result
Over 860,000ha of wetlands preserved in natural state in Belarus
MINSK, 2 February (BelTA) - More than 860,000 hectares of wetlands have been preserved in natural or close to natural state in Belarus, said Vitaly Korenchuk, a consultant with the Biological Diversity Department at the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry of Belarus, BelTA has learned.
“In December 2020, Belarus enforced the law on the protection and use of peatlands, one of the main goals of which is to preserve natural wetlands. To date, 863,000 hectares of wetlands in our country have been preserved in natural or close to natural state. This is about a third of the total area of wetlands we had in the country before the drain campaign, Vitaly Korenchuk said.
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel s environment reporter.
A winter pond formed from seasonal rainwater in the Hadera Forest, northern Israel. (Yaniv Cohen, INPA).
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Environmental Protection Ministry marked World Wetlands Day on Tuesday by publishing a map of all water bodies in the country lakes, streams, swamps and seasonable winter ponds, as well as industrial and effluent ponds according to their ecological value.
The map (labeled in Hebrew) is aimed at helping local authorities to work out how best to implement mosquito control so as not to harm the rich biodiversity found in some aquatic ecosystems.
The decree sets forth rates for charges for waste pollution of the environment. They depend on the type and area of contaminated territory or on the level, mass, and type of waste.