The Gabal Elba National Park declared by Egypt in 1986, covers some 3,560,000 hectares, including most of the disputed Hala’ib Triangle, and an area of comparable size just north of it.
It is also known to potentially hold the last population of the Nubian wild ass. However, the purity of these animals is questionable. An African leopard was killed in the protected area of Elba in 2016.
Lake Burullus
Lake Burullus is a brackish water lake in the Nile Delta in Egypt, name come from Burullus town. It is located in Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate east of Rosetta, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea in the north and agricultural land to the south.
Hydrology
It is considered to be a lake and wetlands site of International importance for birds under the Ramsar Convention.
Agriculture drainage water accounts for 97% of the total inflow to the lake (3.9 billion m3 per year), followed by rain water (2%) and groundwater (1%). 16% of the lake’s water evaporates and 84% flows to the sea.
Wildlife
According to a Biodiversity Report of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency 33 species of fish, 23 species of reptiles, 112 species of birds, and 18 species of mammals live in and around the lake.
Fish species declined from 52 recorded at the beginning of the 20th century, mostly due to the inflow of agricultural drainage into the lake resulting in lower salinity.
Lake Moeris
Lake Moeris is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Faiyum Oasis, 80 km (50 mi) southwest of Cairo, Egypt. In prehistory, it was a freshwater lake, with an area estimated to vary between 1,270 km² (490 mi²) and 1,700 km² (656 mi²).
It persists today as a smaller saltwater lake called Birket Qarun. The lake’s surface is 43 m (140 ft) below sea-level, and covers about 202 square kilometers (78 sq mi).
It is a source for tilapia and other fish from the local area.
The prehistoric mammal Moeritherium was found in this area.
History
When the Mediterranean Sea was a hot dry hollow near the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the late Miocene, Faiyum was a dry hollow, and the Nile flowed past it at the bottom of a canyon (2,400 m deep or more where Cairo is now).
After the Mediterranean re-flooded at the end of the Miocene, the Nile canyon became an arm of the sea reaching inland farther than Aswan. Over geological time that sea arm gradually filled with silt and became the Nile valley.
Eventually, the Nile valley bed silted up high enough to let the flooding Nile overflow into the Faiyum hollow, making a lake in it.
The lake is first recorded from about 3000 BC, around the time of Menes (Narmer), however, for the most part it would only be filled with high flood waters. The lake was bordered by neolithic settlements, and the town of Shedet grew up on the south where the higher ground created a ridge.
In 2300 BC, the waterway from the Nile to the natural lake was widened and deepened to make a canal that now is known as the Bahr Yussef. This project was started by Amenemhat III, or perhaps, by his father Senusret III.
This canal fed into the lake. This was meant to serve three purposes: control the flooding of the Nile, regulate the water level of the Nile during dry seasons, and serve the surrounding area with irrigation.
There is evidence of ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the natural lake of Faiyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry periods.
The immense waterworks undertaken by the ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty to transform the lake into a huge water reservoir gave the impression that the lake was an artificial excavation, as reported by geographers and travelers during classical times.
The lake was eventually abandoned due to the nearest branch of the Nile shrinking from 230 BC.
Etymology
The name Moeris is a Greek version (reformed as if from Greek Μοῖραι “the Fates”) from Egyptian mer-wer ‘great canal’. Amenemhat III, who started this project was also known as Moeris. In ancient Egypt, the lake was also variously called ‘the lake’, ‘pure lake’, and ‘Osiris’ lake’.
During the Middle Kingdom, the whole area around the lake was often referred to as mer-wer as well. Similarly, the Late Egyptian word Piom ‘sea’, originally restricted to Lake Moeris, came to be used to refer to the city of Crocodilopolis (mod Faiyum), then to the entire region in later times.
Nabq Protected Area
NABQ Protected Area (NPA) is a 600 km2 (230 sq mi) protected area located in the Egypt, South Sinai Governorate.
It was established by the Prime Ministerial Decree no.1511/1992 and was extended by Decree 33/1996 where Dahab marine section was added to the protected area as a Dahab Environmentally Managed Area DEMA and finally having NABQ Managed Resource Protected Area which is known shortly as (NMRPA).
Management institutional framework
The Protected Area Management Unit (PAMU) of Nabq is one of the Sinai Protected Area Net Work which is affiliated to the Central Department of the Protected Areas in Egypt under the Nature Conservation Sector of EEAA.
The PAMU is responsible of controlling, developing protection actions, cooperation with stakeholders, enforcing the environmental laws (law 102/1983 and law 4/1994) and reporting the Sinai Regional PA Office in Sharm El Sheikh, which in turn reports to NCS/EEAA in Cairo.
NMRPA management objectives
The protected area had the status of Managed Resource Protected Area (MRPA) IUCN Category VI which is managed mainly for sustainable use of natural ecosystem.
It is an area containing mostly unmodified natural systems, managed to ensure long-term protection and maintenance of biological diversity, while at the same time providing a sustainable flow of natural products and services to meet community needs.
Accordingly, the main proposed management objectives for NMRPA are:
To maintain the natural and cultural resources in good conditions and conserve NPA biodiversity.
To enhance the sustainable utility of natural resources in the PA
To promote NPA as a focal point for ecotourism in the region, and supporting socio-economic benefits to the local community
To increase public understanding and appreciation of NPA natural and cultural heritage
Management issues, policies and actions
Twenty five management issues have been identified. Management issues include problems that currently or potentially could degrade the values of NMRPA, as well as opportunities such as development of ecotourism, and obligations for the Protected Area Management Unit (PAMU) such as visitor safety.
For each management issue, approaches and specific actions are identified within a comprehensive framework reflecting and reinforcing the primary objectives of the PA.
Resources of NMRPA
NMRPA is characterized by a great diversity of habitats and ecosystems in a uniquely compact setting, representing a complete terrestrial/marine ecosystem which characterizes the Gulf of Aqaba coast.
The region has a fascinating natural beauty and outstanding biological diversity. The coral reefs are among the best and most diverse in the Egyptian Red Sea (208 species of hard coral), and are the home for a great number of fish (438 species) and marine invertebrates.
They have enormous economic value, providing the basis for international tourism activities and sustain local Bedouin fisheries.
NMRPA includes a significant stand of mangrove resources of Egypt, a mangle of Avicennia marina extends for 4.5 kilometers in a semi-continuous fringe which is considered the extreme northern mangrove in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean system, It forms important nurseries for economically important fish and nesting sites for many of the region’s water birds.
Substantial sea grass beds provide food for the threatened green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), and dugong (Dugong dugon).
The interior of the PA is a complex pristine mountain wilderness, inhabited by a diversified wildlife, including several endangered species, and representing enormous attractions for ecotourism activities.
Wadi El Keed watershed is one of the largest drainage basins to the Gulf of Aqaba on the Egyptian side. It can be considered as the best-vegetated wadi all over the Gulf, having the biggest aggregation of the Arak Sand Dunes (Salvadora persica) representing a unique vegetation.
There are more than 20 globally threatened species known in NMRPA. The most significant species for which NMRPA can make an important contribution towards their global conservation are marine turtles, sharks, dugong, osprey (Pandion haliaetus), white-eyed gull (Larus leucophthalmus), dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas), and Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana).
The area is inhabited by local peoples (Bedouin) belonging to El Mezina Tribe, who still practice their traditional lifestyle largely in harmony with their environment and mainly are living on fishing, pasture and tourism.
The area has an archaeological site at Wadi Saialet Dalal has been made in the old time by the Bedouin.
Natural systems are still intact and no development occurred in the area, except for mining and quarrying for albite at Wadi El Samra and the old inactive copper mine which may be activated in the near future.
