Introduction
With the outbreak of significant social protest in Tunisia’spost–2011 Revolution period, environmental mobilization received much attention. New environmental campaigns – such as Manish Msab (I Am Not a Dump) and Stop Pollution behind which local communities rallied – gained recognition at the national level, raised awareness of environmental harms, and succeeded in inducing state action. Yet social protest was only one of the forms of environmental mobilization that Tunisia witnessed in the revolution’s aftermath. Several movements with different organizational forms and affiliations, operating in various geographical locations, have been active since 2011, and some even prior.
This study investigates environmental mobilization in Tunisia, focusing on the period from 2011 until the end of 2024. It relies on an empirical study based on a survey and interviews conducted with 11 environmental civil society organizations (ECSO) based in Tunisia, many of which played a considerable role in various forms of environmental mobilization in the country. The mission of most of these organizations is hardly confined to achieving environmental objectives. Rather, environmental objectives mingle with social, political, and economic ones, and these other objectives often take precedence. Environmental movements engage in various forms of mobilization and interact among themselves and with various other actors – such as the state, business, labor, and international organizations – in ways that vary between cooperation and confrontation and in their level of trust and coordination. Such interactions shape their environment-oriented activities and their outcomes.
The study is a part of a wider research project entitled “Developing Inclusive Research through Activism and Informed Advocacy”, bringing together the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) and the Moroccan Institute for Policy Analysis, and funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre. The project’s main aim is to investigate environmental mobilization in the Arab world with the purpose of creating knowledge on the various forms, expressions, and demands of environmental movements, their organizational parameters, interactions with other state and non-state actors, and the conditions they face.
Considering the multidimensional environmental challenges faced on a global scale, exploring the dynamics of ECSOs is of utmost importance given that they are the actors often most concerned with addressing these challenges. Tunisia, located at the center of North Africa and one of the closest points to Europe, highlights the environmental dimensions of north-south disparities and discourses about green colonialism. Moreover, the nature and pace of political changes in the country since 2011 demonstrate how changes in governance – i.e., a democratic transition and authoritarian resurgence – and ongoing, unsettled sociopolitical struggle reverberate and interact with environmentalism.
The study starts with exploring the political-economic context in post-2011 Tunisia and how the opening of the political field led to the emergence of various ECSOs. This section also explores the most important environmental challenges that the country faces, with a focus on industrial and service sector pollution, water usage, and the green transition. The study then engages in a mapping of ECSOs, their modes of organization, geographical distribution, strategies and tactics, objectives and priorities, and the challenges they face. A subsequent section studies how ECSOs interact with each other and with state, social, and international actors, with a focus on the fields and the extent of cooperation, confrontation, and coordination. An assessment of the successes and failures of ECSOs then follows. The study concludes with a summary of findings and practical implications.
The views represented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arab Reform Initiative, its staff, or its board.
