Dr. Ziad Abdulwahab Al-Nuaimi
College of Law

The environment constitutes the milieu in which humans live and strive to develop in accordance with their basic needs. Protecting it is an essential necessity from humanitarian, legal, economic, and social perspectives. The concept of international protection and legal regulation at both the national and international levels is among the fundamental principles that must be upheld, given the importance of such protection in preserving human beings as the supreme value in their life and health in general. States, individually and collectively, aspire to provide this protection through the integration of international and national legal systems, and by harmonizing national legislation with the international conventions they have ratified and become parties to, in order to address the problem of pollution and achieve scientifically acceptable levels that are harmless to humans, their health, and their related rights, for present and future generations.

Approximately 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, and 52% of agricultural land is mildly or severely affected by soil degradation resulting from climate change. Land degradation impacts about 1.5 billion people globally, particularly in agricultural countries. Moreover, the rate of arable land loss during the period following the onset of climate change—prompted by states’ attention to climate issues due to greenhouse gas emissions, increased industrial activity, rising pollutants, and other direct activities, as well as rural-to-urban migration—has been estimated to be 30 to 35 times higher than the general average recorded over previous decades.