Shaheed El-Hafed, June 7, 2026 (SPS) – The Sahrawi Observatory for the Monitoring of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection (SONREP) has stressed that environmental justice in Western Sahara is inseparable from the Sahrawi people’s inalienable right to self-determination and sovereignty over their natural resources.
On the occasion of World Environment Day, SONREP denounced in a statement the “intense and ongoing exploitation” of land and marine resources in the Sahrawi cities occupied by Morocco, carried out without the consent of the Sahrawi people.
SONREP brought the issue this week before two international forums, including in Madrid during the meeting entitled “Territorial Resistances and Other Forms of Justice.”
It questioned how environmental justice can be achieved when the resources of an entire people are exploited without their consent and by the occupying power.
SONREP reaffirmed that environmental protection is an integral part of the human rights framework and announced that it will continue documenting the systematic plundering of Western Sahara’s natural resources by Morocco, while strengthening its solidarity ties with environmental movements across countries of the Global South.
