Environment
Current environmental issues for Tunisia include:
- Toxic and hazardous waste - disposal is ineffective and presents human health risks
- Water pollution from raw sewage
- Limited natural fresh water resources
- Deforestation
- Overgrazing
- Soil erosion
- Desertification
Tunisia is a party to the following international agreements: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution (MARPOL 73/78) and Wetlands. Tunisia has signed, but not ratified the Marine Life Conservation agreement.
Tunisia, like other North African countries, has lost much of its prehistoric biodiversity due to the ongoing expanding human population; for example, until historic times there was a population of the endangered primate Barbary Macaque, Macaca sylvanus. The Monk Seal is now extirpated from Tunisia.
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Tunisia
Famous quotes containing the word environment:
“White males are the most responsible for the destruction of human life and environment on the planet today.”
—Robin Morgan (b. 1941)
“In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the exceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“Modern man’s capacity for destruction is quixotic evidence of humanity’s capacity for reconstruction. The powerful technological agents we have unleashed against the environment include many of the agents we require for its reconstruction.”
—George F. Will (b. 1941)