The Environment Authority on International Biodiversity Day: "Local Action" Confronts Occupation Schemes for "Environmental Genocide"

SadaNews - The Environmental Quality Authority stated today, Thursday, that protecting and preserving biodiversity and ecosystems in Palestine represents a national resilience battle to protect a natural heritage that is systematically targeted by the occupation. The desired "global impact" begins with empowering the Palestinian people to gain sovereignty over their land and natural resources, which is a right for them and for future generations.

The Environmental Quality Authority clarified that the State of Palestine is joining the international community today in commemorating "International Biodiversity Day," which falls on the 22nd of May each year. This year, the theme is "Local Action with Global Impact," highlighting the national efforts undertaken by the Environmental Quality Authority and other national institutions that form the cornerstone for achieving global goals related to environmental protection and biodiversity conservation.

It continued that the sustainability of our planet begins with protecting local ecosystems, as Palestine is a natural reservoir that hosts more than 2100 species of plants, some of which are endemic to Palestine and do not grow anywhere else in the world, around 530 species of birds, 130 species of mammals, and more than 85 species of reptiles and amphibians. However, this natural heritage faces threats represented in colonial expansion that fragments natural habitats and cuts wildlife corridors through the annexation and expansion wall, establishment of settlements and military zones, constructing colonial roads, along with urban sprawl, industrial activities, and invasive alien species that disrupt the original ecological balance.

The Environmental Quality Authority confirmed that the threats from the Israeli occupation are part of a continuous context aimed at depleting Palestinian natural resources and imposing a coercive environmental reality. According to the report from the Environmental Quality Authority for the first quarter of 2026, (58) direct assaults on vegetation were recorded, and (168) assaults involved uprooting and burning thousands of fruit trees in the year 2025, in addition to colonial expansion through the declaration and legalization of (34) new colonial outposts at the expense of biodiversity sites, and the return to evacuated colonial sites in the northern West Bank.

It stated that the current state of biodiversity in the Gaza Strip, which is part of the environmental reality, is described by international experts and legal experts as "environmental genocide," representing a state of comprehensive and systematic destruction that has affected the pillars of natural life. This destruction targeted not only living beings but also destroyed the ecosystems that took decades to form, under the burden of continuous shelling and excavation, turning the Gaza Valley reserve into scorched land. This environmental destruction has extended to pollute the aquifer and agricultural soils, threatening food security. This makes environmental recovery a challenge that requires international efforts in a land that has been targeted for its resources in unprecedented ways, thwarting the goals of the "Kunming-Montreal Framework," especially the goal of protecting 30% of lands and waters by 2030.

In a step to enhance the sustainable management of biodiversity, the Palestinian Cabinet approved on 28/4/2026 the results of the study conducted by the Environmental Quality Authority to update areas rich in biodiversity in the West Bank. The Environmental Quality Authority is also currently working on completing the seventh national biodiversity report to present it to the Secretariat of the Biodiversity Convention.