Environmental Quality Authority

Brief history

Environmental Foundation was established in its first form, “the Palestinian Environmental Authority” in 1996 by a presidential decree, as an administratively and financially independent authority concerned with environmental affairs in all its aspects and leading the process of organizing work in the environmental field for its protection and maintenance. In 1998, the Ministry of Environmental Affairs was established, and the Palestinian Environmental Authority was merged into it, so that its official name in 2002 was "Environmental Quality Authority".

The Environmental Quality Authority (EQA) seeks to promote sustainable environmental development for the Palestinian community, and its main mission is to

Protecting the environment with all its elements

As well as preventing environmental hazards to which all living organisms are exposed.

The Environmental Quality Authority also constitutes the umbrella for all activities and studies related to planning, protection and environmental control, but this responsibility does not fall on it alone, but all other Palestinian ministries and institutions concerned with Palestinian environmental affairs share it, based on the principle of partnership and integration in work.

The constitutional framework for environmental protection is based on Article 33 of the amended Basic Law. Law No. 7 of 1999 (Environmental Law) is considered the general legal framework that regulates rights and duties in protecting the environment, although it is considered a relatively recent law and regulates a sector that relies mainly on scientific and technical principles. Technically, enforcement of the law can only be accomplished by implementing a set of executive regulations, instructions and technical requirements, which must be carried out taking into account a wide range of other legislation such as the Public Health Law, Agriculture Law, Water Law, Natural Resources Law, Labor Law and a number of other legislations due to the comprehensiveness of the Environmental Law and intersect with it.