Environmental issues in Yemen

The city of Sana'a

Yemen maintains diverse landscapes of mountains, plains, and deserts. There is narrow coastal plain backed by flat-topped hills and rugged mountains; and dissected upland desert plains in center slope into the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula.[1]
Forests covering the highlands are eliminated due to increasingly overgrazing and logging. Yemen covers 203,849 square miles (527,970 square kilometers) including 112 islands and 0 square kilometers of open water. The climate of Yemen is mostly desert weather. It is hot and humid along the coastal sections. Hot, dry and harsh desert in the east. Climate in the western mountains is affected by seasonal monsoons. Average Daily Temperatures in January: 13.9 °C/57 °F; in July: 21.7 °C/71 °F. Average annual rainfall in Yemen is 508mm/20".[2]

Water issues in Yemen are based on two aspects, water shortage and water quality.

There are about 6,800 square kilometers of irrigated land in Yemen (2008). Overgrazing of pastureland is endemic. Soil erosion and desertification are also hazards in Yemen.[2] Agricultural lands in Yemen are subject to various degrees of degradation and decline of soil productivity. Desertification largely threatens the natural resource-base.[10]
Desertification is best expressed by the loss of land productivity, following mining of a resource. Monoculture in the absence of any farm inputs or rotations and erroneous farming practices constitute common features of Yemeni agriculture, which contribute greatly to the decline of agricultural yields and ultimately to desertification through loss of the resource productivity potential. Any reduction of the agricultural sector's importance in the national economy, will result in reduction of the national income and eventually affect the pace of development of the country. Main physical aspects of desertification are reduction in woodland, mangrove biomass and in species diversity, and depletion in groundwater.[10]
A number of planning frameworks related to rural development and natural resource conservation were developed. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is determined to implement the convention's main objectives of combating desertification and mitigating the effects of drought in order to achieve sustainable development. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) has created many tools for the management, conservation, and sustainable development of natural resources.[10]

As of 2017, Yemen was one of only 3 countries in the world with widespread use of leaded engine gasoline for automobiles, the others being Algeria and Iraq.[11] Concerns over the toxicity of lead[12] led to a ban on leaded automobile gasoline in most countries prior to 2011.[13]

The Yemeni Government is facing challenging difficulties in many directions including severe water shortage, declining oil reserves, and succession questions.[14] National Assessment of Sustainable Development in Yemen aims to highlight the integration of the social dimension and environmental interest in development planning, illustrating the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and setting the sustainable development priorities beyond 2015. Sustainable development is achieved on the basis of three fundamental pillars: economic growth, social development, and rationalization use of natural resources.[14] The MDGs established measurable and universally-agreed objectives for eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, preventing deadly but treatable disease, and expanding educational opportunities to all children. The MDGs drove progress in several important areas: income poverty, access to improved sources of water, primary school enrollment and child mortality.[15]
During many decades and via the support of international approaches, consecutive Yemeni governments adopted a number of initiatives and put great efforts. The following are most important ones:[16]

• Poverty Reduction Strategy 2003-2005 is the cornerstone of intervention to combat poverty. It consists of five axes: achieving economic growth, increasing employment opportunities, developing infrastructure, providing a better level of basic social services, establishing an effective social safety net for the poor and drafting a mechanism for encouraging participation and cooperation. This strategy achieved positive outcomes, in which poverty rate decreased from 40.1% in 1998 to 34.8% 2005/2006 (indicated in HBS). Other national strategies focus on combating poverty include Food Security 2010, Agricultural Sector 2012, Fishery Sector 2012, Water 2013, and Environmental Sustainability 2007. Yemen's Strategic Vision 2025 is aimed at placing Yemen by 2025, among the countries of inclusion moderate human development with economic diversification and social, scientific, cultural and political development.
• Economic and Social Development Plans for Poverty Reduction aimed at achieving development and reducing poverty. The fifth-year plans adopted a set of policies and programs to achieve the following: expanding the social safety net and developing its targeting mechanism, empowering economically the poor by promoting small projects and micro finance programs, giving priorities to labor-intensive investments in all sectors, particularly agriculture with a focus on rural areas.
• Yemen's Transitional Program for Stabilization and Development(TPSD), by the light of exceptional conditions and via donors’ support, aimed to continue the exerted efforts at combating poverty, particularly in rural areas, expanding the social protection umbrella for the sake of alleviating the adverse impacts of the deteriorating economic conditions, and promoting food security on the basis of local agricultural productivity. The urgent humanitarian needs have been estimated at $2,136 million, including aid to the displaced.
• CNDD, specifically the axis of Sustainable Development, which contained 12 special resolutions, concerning food security, social protection and malnutrition combat. This concern emerged in the light of adopting a system of “Free Social Economy” or Social Market Economy in order to ensure the balance between market economy and social equality within economic relations, develop productivity, realize social integration, equalize opportunities, and upgrade the living standards of the people.