Egypt launches initiative to save nature reserves

Egypt has launched a new initiative aimed at documenting nature reserves across the country with the hope of preventing them from falling into oblivion.

The initiative, called E’raf Mahmyetak (Know Your Nature Reserves), was launched by nonprofit organization Shabab Betheb Misr (Young People Loving Egypt) in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment to protect the country’s valued nature reserves from being left behind and boost the country’s tourism industry.

“We have been working on the initiative for years, and now we have managed to document seven nature reserves through photo galleries and short documentaries and are working now on documenting the remaining reserves,” Ahmed Fathi, chairman of Shabab Betheb Misr Foundation, told Al-Monitor.

As part of the initiative, the foundation has organized several photo galleries in Egypt that showcase outstanding images of the country's nature reserves. It also created a host of short documentaries about those nature reserves and their breathtaking landscapes. Some visits for young people to the nature reserves were also organized, but the foundation could not continue to organize those visits due to its limited budget.