All you need to know about environmental crimes punished in Egypt

CAIRO – 25 June 2022: With the limited nature of natural resources, they must be preserved for the future generations, and thus, states worldwide, including Egypt, have set laws to punish environmental crimes.  

Egypt’s law combat environmental crimes to achieve sustainability on our planet. Therefore, Law No. 4 of 1994 and its executive regulations prohibit a number of crimes, including: overfishing of birds, animals and fish, as well as cutting down trees, and polluting the Nile River.

The law defines environmental crime as “an attack on the environment, whether air, water or land, in a way that reduces its value, distorts its nature, or depletes its resources.”

Egypt has issued laws and decisions to protect the environment, including one in 1982, and an amended law No. 9 of 2009, where penalties for some environmental crimes, reach up to 5 years in prison, and fines of up to three million pounds.

In the below lines, et discusses the list of environmental crimes stipulated in the law:

First: Fishing

Fishing is one of the practices prohibited by law, as it is banned to hunt, kill or catch wild birds or animals, as well as aquatic organisms, possessing or transporting them, as well as exporting, importing them, and trading in them, alive or dead, and considered a crime, per the law.

Second: Destruction of natural habitats

Natural habitats include shelters, where marine and wild creatures live.

The law prohibits carrying out any actions that would destroy these natural habitats, change their natural properties, or destroy their nests, eggs or offspring.

Third: Cutting down trees

It is prohibited to cut or destroy plants, as well as to possess, transport, import, export or trade in all or parts of them or their derivatives or products.

The law also prohibits carrying out acts that would destroy their natural habitats, or even changing the natural properties of it or its habitat.

Fourth: Destruction of fossils

Destroying fossils is a prohibited environmental act, as it is prohibited to collect, possess, transport or trade in any kind of fossils, whether animal or plant, or change their features or destroy geological structures.  

The law also prohibits changing the environmental phenomena that characterize them, and affect their aesthetic level, especially in areas of natural reserves.

Fifth: Wildlife trafficking

The law prohibits the process of trafficking in all living animal or plant organisms, especially endangered ones, for the purpose of breeding or cultivating them outside their habitats. The law also requires obtaining a license from the Environmental Affairs Agency.

Sixth: Pollution

The law also prohibits the circulation of hazardous materials and waste without a license from the competent administrative authority.

The international trade in wildlife is worth about $20 billion annually, according to a report issued by the United Nations Environment Program and Interpol, on the increase in environmental crime, highlighting the wild plants and animals that are vulnerable to exploitation due to crimes of illegal hunting, transportation, processing and sale.