Shaheed El Hafed, 19 September 2026 (SPS) – Dr. Ghali Zbeir, President of the Sahrawi Petroleum and Gas Authority and adviser to the Sahrawi Observatory for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, said that concern for the environment in Western Sahara is inseparable from people’s present and future, as well as their health, economy and livelihoods.
He warned that the impacts of natural resource exploitation go beyond plunder and may extend to environmental destruction that could be irreversible.
He made the remarks during a conference held today, Saturday, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to present the report, in the presence of researchers, experts, representatives of international institutions and organizations, civil society representatives and media professionals.
Dr. Ghali Zbeir explained that choosing the environment as a central theme of the report is based on the direct connection between the ecosystem and people’s lives, both now and in the future, as well as their health, economy and living conditions. He noted that experiences from other regions subjected to colonial rule have shown that the effects of exploitation can go beyond resource depletion to cause profound environmental damage that is difficult, and in some cases potentially impossible, to repair or to restore the ecosystems that have been destroyed.
He stressed the importance of recognizing the value of the report, describing it as the first comprehensive study to document the state of the environment in the occupied Sahrawi territories. He also highlighted its direct linkage between the natural resources issue and the environmental impacts resulting from their exploitation, thereby broadening attention to the issue to include one of the major challenges facing humanity: protecting the environment and addressing the risks of environmental degradation.
He pointed out that documenting environmental violations is particularly important because environmental harm affects not only resources and ecosystems, but can also constitute a violation of human rights in the present and future, especially when it concerns natural resources and ecosystems on which local populations and future generations depend.
He said the report also opens broad opportunities for students and researchers to explore an issue that brings together natural resources, the environment, human rights and conflict management in territories under occupation. This, he added, can contribute to developing scientific research into the multiple dimensions of the Sahrawi issue and strengthening documentation and accountability mechanisms.
Dr. Ghali Zbeir also addressed the concepts of environmental justice and greenwashing, stressing the importance of subjecting projects and activities presented as economic, developmental or related to clean energy to independent environmental assessments, rather than relying solely on sustainability slogans without examining their actual and cumulative impacts on the ground.
In this regard, he highlighted that the report traces the impacts of exploitation across several key sectors, particularly marine resources, phosphates, groundwater, sand and renewable energy. This approach helps demonstrate the relationship between different economic activities and their environmental impacts, rather than considering each activity in isolation.
He stressed that the report’s importance also lies in placing environmental concerns at the heart of the debate over natural resource exploitation in Western Sahara and creating scope for further independent studies that can contribute to documenting environmental damage and identifying its cumulative impacts, while raising awareness of the importance of protecting ecosystems and safeguarding the rights of future generations.
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