Do you know PENGON?

Mission
The Palestinian Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PENGON) is a coordinating body between the different Palestinian NGOs working in the field of environment. It aims to serve Palestinian environmental issues by coordinating endeavors between the member organizations, strengthening and building the efficiency within each organization, and enhancing relations within the Network as well as with other organizations domestically and abroad, such as local government agencies and international environmental organizations.

Why PENGON?
The idea of establishing a network of Palestinian environmental organizations began in 1998, when a number of the NGOs felt the urgent need to coordinate their efforts. These organizations faced a Palestinian environment in grave danger due to violent Israeli occupation practices on the ground, including the confiscation of land, illegal settlement activities, the uprooting of trees, the destruction of Palestinian agricultural land, the use of Palestinian occupied lands by Israel as dumping ground for poisonous industrial waste, and the exhausting of water resources and the polluting of the water ground reservoirs by settlements. These concerns have only intensified?dramatically--since the recent Intifada.

To cope with this desperate situation, and to coordinate the scattered efforts of the different Palestinian NGOs in the field of the environment, a number of active Palestinian NGOs held several meetings in April and May of 2001. The meetings culminated in the announcement of the Network and the election of a Coordinating Committee to combine these efforts those organizations.

General Aims
The Network will highlight environmental issues by:

1. Strengthening the role of Palestinian NGOs in the field of the environment.
2. Developing and coordinating the efforts of the different member organizations, improving the quality of their work, and encouraging them to work on joint projects in order to avoid competition and minimize the duplication.
3. Establishing contacts and the exchange of expertise between the different local NGOs as well as with local public institutions and agencies and environmental organizations working in the field of the environmental.
4. Building the capacity of the member organizations to help strength and improve the process of building a civil society in a healthy environmental with the emphasis on the principles of public participation in decision making and sustainable development.
5. To help in the lobbying process in regards to environmental laws and policies.
6. The constant recording and following of environmental violations and the consequent resistance of such violations.
7. Strengthening the role of women and youth, particularly school and university students, in environmental protection.
8. Establishing an environmental database and exchanging this data with various institutions.

Network Structure
The Network member organizations work with one or more of the following domains:

• Developing and sustaining natural resources.
• Environmental awareness.
• Protecting wildlife.
• Preventing desertification.
• Combating environmental pollution.
• Developing and maintaining archeological sites.
• Eco & environmental tourism.
• Developing alternative & renewable energy uses.

General Assembly
The General Assembly consists of the founding members of the Network. It is the legislative body of the Network, which is mainly responsible over discussing and approving the Network?s administrative and financial system as well as the budgets and annual reports in addition to accepting new members. Meetings are held at least twice a year.

Coordinating Committee
The Coordinating Committee is composed of seven organizations that are elected by the General Assembly for the period of two years. It is considered the executive body, working on a voluntary basis. Its main responsibilities are applying the GA?s decisions, preparing detailed plans, supervising the management, and preparing the financial and administrative reports for the General Assembly.

ZDROJ: PENGON